Senior Year: Graduating Childhood
by broadwaybaby2010
Summary: Troy and Gabriella's relationship, last semester at East High, and plans for the future hit a serious roadblock that changes them forever. But when they can't bring themselves to tell their parents, it's just Troy, Gabriella, and their closest friends left to figure it all out as the last months of their childhood speed by them. HSM3 events are turned on their heads in this drama.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with the HSM franchise. All I own is the original writing and storyline of this fic. I make no money from the writing of this story. No copyright infringement is intended.** **Later chapters of this story will utilize scenes, moments, or lines from HSM3. I do not claim to own those ideas and use them only as context for the original content surrounding them.**_

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Senior Year: Graduating Childhood

Chapter One

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The seniors' last semester at East High began and it was the most hectic time Troy and Gabriella could have imagined. On top of incredibly difficult classes (Gabriella's college prep and AP classes and Troy's standard, but still senior level, classes), it seemed like every other day was filled with meetings during home room about last minute college acceptance or cap and gown orders or financial aid. The seniors had given up suppressing the groans that echoed through the drama classroom each time Darbus announced all seniors needed to go to the auditorium for an "informational meeting."

Luckily, there was a lull in "information" once February hit. Troy and Chad wouldn't have had the energy to pay attention anyway. Coach was drilling them hard every day after school and every free period to prepare for back-to-back championships. And what was more exhausting than the physical exertion was the lack of time Troy had for Gabriella after New Year's. He was glad they had taken the opportunity to be together when they could because there was little relief in sight.

They were a little over a month into their final semester of high school, and Gabriella was feeling the strain too. She was a smart girl, no one would argue that, but something felt off and Gabriella couldn't quite put her finger on it. It just all felt… too much. The endless hours of homework that kept her up late each night, the design work for the yearbook layout, the lack of time to curl up in Troy's arms and just breathe for a few minutes - it was all weighing on her. Troy could see that, too, and he worried for his girlfriend. She was the strong one. She was the one who could stand up to Sharpay. She was the one who could correct teachers. She was the one who had her future all planned. And even she looked stressed. And, though Gabriella hadn't admitted it to Troy (or anyone else for that matter), the stress seemed to be affecting her physically. She felt tired all the time - even more tired than her late night studying should have caused. She even had an uneasiness that had settled into her body… and into her stomach. She wasn't eating like she used to in hopes of keeping the sick feeling at bay, but Troy was worried. He may not have known the details, but he knew something was off. But no matter how often he asked, she would always assure him she was okay. And how could she not? She and Taylor were the ones who were the most prepared for the next step after high school. How could she tell him that the stress was getting to her just as much as it was for him?

But still they went on, trying to take it day by day, class by class. But one day, for some reason, it all seemed to come to a head for Gabriella. That uneasiness filled her body and went straight to her stomach, right in the middle of homeroom. But she couldn't manage to suppress it this time and panic spread over her body as she shot her arm in the air to interrupt Ms. Darbus's announcements. But when her teacher didn't notice her arm in the air, she spoke to get her attention, hating to talk out of turn but lacking another choice

"Ms. Darbus?" Gabriella asked, causing their drama and homeroom teacher to look up from the announcement sheet she had in her hands. "Can I be excused? I don't feel so well."

Troy's head snapped up and turned around to see her. She was pale, her face void of emotion except… was that a hint of panic in her eyes? Troy mouthed to her, "Are you okay?" but she didn't answer. She barely looked his way.

Ms. Darbus seemed to be taking her time in her decision to let Gabriella leave the room - that or it simply felt that way to Troy who was incredibly worried about his girlfriend. "Yes, Ms. Montez, but I'll need to -" But before Darbus could finish her request to fill out a hall pass, Gabriella was up and running for the door.

The room chattered with concern and curiosity. "Hoops, is Gabster okay?" Chad asked Troy, who was staring at the door where Gabriella just left.

"I don't know, man. She seemed a bit off this morning when I picked her up for school, but I don't -"

Darbus cleared her throat, bringing the class back to order and cutting off the boys' conversation. But Troy had very little ability to pay attention to the long list of announcements and deadlines his teacher was rattling off. He was antsy and concerned. With Darbus's face buried the in the announcements, Troy snuck his phone out of his pocket and typed a quick message to Gabriella. But when he heard the faint buzzing come from her bag still beside her desk, he knew there was no hope in hearing from her. Luckily Ms. Darbus didn't hear the vibrations or they would have all been subjected to "was that a cell phone?" again.

The longer the class period went on with no sign of Gabriella, the more Troy felt like he too might be sick. Something wasn't right. By now, Darbus had retired to her desk and left the rest of homeroom as a much needed study hall for her seniors. But Troy wasn't accomplishing anything. He was anxiously staring at the classroom door, hoping to see his girlfriend reappear.

With class more than half way over, Troy was fearing the worst. He reached up and smacked Chad's arm, startling him from the nap he had drifted into with his basketball as a pillow. "Hey. I'm going to go check on Gabi," Troy whispered to his best friend, letting him know the plan.

"She's still not back?" Chad asked, a bit dazed. He glanced around and saw Gabi's still empty seat. "I hate to break it to you, Hoops, but Darbus isn't going to let you go traipsing off to find your girlfriend in the girls' bathroom. I'm not teacher, but that whole plan sounds sketchy, even to me."

Troy muffled a swear word as his leg started bouncing in agitation. He glanced around the room, hoping to get another idea when his eyes fell to Taylor. But no matter how hard he stared at her or thought "please look over here," she kept her focus on her schoolwork. Adjusting the plan, Troy ripped part of a piece of notebook paper from his binder and scribbled his message on it. Then he whispered the plan to Chad to set it into motion.

Chad took Troy's note before glancing over at Ms. Darbus's desk where she was buried in Shakespeare essays. Then he picked up the basketball from his desk and chucked it against the blackboard before it bounced across the room, scattered student papers from a couple of desks. The sudden commotion sent the room into dismay as Darbus snapped at Chad. "Mr. Danforth, I understand that your main concerns may be on the basketball rink, but this is certainly no time to practicing shooting touchdowns!"

Chad had rushed from his seat at that moment and went to gather the ball, which had landed toward the back of the classroom near Taylor's desk. He suppressed his eye roll at Darbus combining football, hockey, and basketball and half muttered, "Sorry, Ms. Darbus, ma'am." Taylor looked up at him with a glare as he stood up with the ball in his arms. Her eyes were wide and disapproving. But, with his back to the teacher's desk, he dropped Troy's note on her desk before going back to his seat.

As Ms. Darbus called the class back to order, Taylor watched intently for the teacher's gaze to be diverted so she could read the note. She kept glancing over at Chad with confusion written across her brow, but she continued to meet Troy's gaze instead. Another glance up to the teacher's desk confirmed that Ms. Darbus was back at work; this gave Taylor the chance to unfold the note and read:

 _Something's wrong with Gabi. Phone in her bag. Can you go check on her?_

 _-Troy_

She looked up again and saw the concern on Troy's face and the pleading expression he was sending her. Taylor gave him a small nod and straightened the things on her desk before standing and approaching Ms. Darbus's desk. On her way, she checked the time on the clock and Troy thought he saw a moment of concern flash across her face, too. Luckily Ms. Darbus didn't put up much of a fight when Taylor asked to leave the room. Taylor gave Troy a reassuring nod before disappearing through the classroom door.

Troy watched the clock, holding his breath. As each minute ticked by without word or sign of Taylor, he got more and more nervous. He sent five separate texts to Taylor. No response. Something was definitely wrong. Neither of the girls returned for the rest of class. Troy had a knot in his stomach the size of a basketball. He had to get to Gabriella.

As soon as the bell rang, he sprang from his seat, startling Chad who had fallen back asleep. He rushed to gather Gabi and Taylor's things, slinging Gabriella's bag over his shoulder and piling his own books on top of Taylor's before tucking them under his arm. Chad didn't even have time to locate Troy before his friend had rushed from the room to find the nearest girls' bathroom.

But once he got outside the door, Troy froze, staring at the odd stick figure with the triangle "dress" on the door. He couldn't go in there. And while his fear for Gabi probably would have overridden that in most cases, it was passing period. It was likely that several other girls were inside other than Taylor and Gabi. He shifted uncomfortably in his spot. He edged his way closer to the door and pushed it open a crack with his foot, the bright pink tile of the wall inside practically blinding him. He nervously cleared his throat and spoke through the crack, keeping his eyes on his shoes. "Um..Tay-Taylor? Gabi? It's Troy. I have your books…." He heard a shuffle and some mumbled speech before footsteps approached. Troy's heart dropped a little when Taylor appeared around the corner rather than his girlfriend.

Taylor met Troy at the door, coming out into the hall with him. She looked a bit… frazzled. "What's going on, Taylor?" Troy demanded. But before Taylor could answer, there was a faint retching sound from behind the door. Troy pushed the door open again and called out, "Gabi?" but Taylor responded for her.

"She's been throwing up off and on the whole class period," Taylor explained.

Troy's eyebrows pressed together in concern. "Is it the flu? Or food poisoning?"

"She's not sure. She was doing a bit better and there's probably not much left for her to throw up now. She just wants it to stop so she can go back to class."

"Class? Are you crazy? She needs to go home and go to bed!"

"I know that, Troy, but have you met Gabriella? She doesn't want to miss class, especially with it being our last semester."

Troy groaned and rubbed his hand over his face in frustration because he knew he wasn't going to win this. "Right…." he admitted, "But I'm not leaving until I see her and know she's okay…."

Taylor couldn't help but give him a small, soft smile. "I didn't figure you would. But it may be a bit," she warned, catching another worried look for Troy before she clarified, "Her shirt is drying."

"Drying?"

"Yeah… It had a couple of spots of vomit on it. I couldn't do much except rinse it in the sink, but it was something…. She doesn't have an extra in her locker or anything, does she?"

Troy thought for a moment. "No… I don't think so. Her locker is basically strictly books. She doesn't use it as a wardrobe like Sharpay." They both chuckled. Troy sighed a bit, trying to come up with a solution before it clicked. "Here," he said, tossing his books to the ground and pulling his baseball-tee over his head. He fought to keep his undershirt down but inevitably flashed his abs to the hallway. A stray cheerleader and a couple of underclassmen fangirls happened to pass at just that moment with a wolf whistle and appreciative stare. Taylor glared back on behalf of Gabi and Troy couldn't have cared less in his focus to help Gabi. "Give her this to wear," Troy told Taylor, handing it to her and pulling his white undershirt down into its proper place.

Taylor raised her eyebrows a bit and gave him a questioning look. "You do know what that's going to look like, right? It's a pretty clear statement of 'I sleep with the guy who owns this shirt'….."

"Yeah, and?" To be honest, it wasn't the whole school's business what he and Gabriella did within their relationship. Troy did his best to keep their relationship out of the trap of the high school rumor mill - and that wasn't an easy feat. The razzing from the team when he was mute in "locker room talk" was bad enough, but then add in shutting down Sharpay's advances at every turn and cheerleader jealousy of the "nerdy girl" being with the basketball captain… it was a full time job. But he did that for her sake. He honestly couldn't care less what other people thought, so long as he had Gabi. And, in the case of her wearing his shirt, their assumptions wouldn't be wrong for once….

Eyebrows still raised, Taylor told him, "Okay then," and turned to go back into the restroom with a bit of a smirk.

A few minutes later, decidedly after the tardy bell, Gabriella emerged wearing Troy's shirt with her head hung low in embarrassment, Taylor right behind her. Taylor and Troy met gazes that clearly said they were both worried. He then took in the sight of his girlfriend. She looked tired, her shoulders were hunched, and she looked a bit pale. But he liked that she was wearing his shirt. It gave off the aura that he was protecting her, wrapped around her. "Hey you," Troy greeted softly gathering her into his arms. He leaned down to give her a peck, but she put his hand to his chest, halting him.

"No, Troy. I've been throwing up. Rinsing my mouth in the sink only does so much without a toothbrush…."

Her eyes were glued to the floor. He could tell she was embarrassed. He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the top of her head instead, keeping away from her lips only to appease her. "How are you feeling?" he asked as Taylor kept a close on eye the exchange.

"I'm fine, Troy. But we're all late to class….." She reached for her bag that was still slung over his shoulder.

"I've got it," he assured her, brushing a stray curl behind her ear. "I'm worried about you."

"I'll be fine, Troy!" Gabriella snapped, causing Troy and Taylor to share a look over her shoulder. "Can I have my books, please? We need to get to class." Troy gave her a wary look as he handed her bag over. "Thank you. Now, maybe Ms. Darbus will give us tardy passes to our next class. I don't want either of you in detention because of me," and she turned, taking off back down the hallway.

Troy and Taylor trailed behind, watching her carefully. "What is going on with her?" Taylor asked Troy, the one who knew Gabriella better than anyone.

"Stress maybe? I really have no idea. But we need to keep an eye on her." Taylor nodded her head in agreement as she took her books from Troy's arm and they picked up the pace to catch up with Gabriella.

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 _ **A/N: I hope you're intrigued! I will say that this opening is very different from what I had intended through much of my writing process, but I settled on this so that later events can be more of a surprise reveal. So, I will say I am content rather than happy with this moment as the opening. I am more enthused about my writing later in the story, so I hope you will stay tuned. Please consider leaving me your thoughts on what we have here. I appreciate any feedback I get!**_

 _ **This story follows a timeline that is slightly extended from HSM3. We start a couple months or so before the movie and then follow our characters through graduation. My original intention behind this story was to give Gabriella a stronger motivation to feel the need to go to Stanford early (because it felt so forced in the movie to me). So you'll see events you recognize turned on their heads a bit throughout (that's just sort of my style). I look forward to taking this journey with you! Thanks for reading!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Senior Year: Graduating Childhood

Chapter Two

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A couple of days went by with Troy and Taylor practically taking shifts to keep an eye on Gabriella. And while Gabriella knew it was only out of their caring for her, she couldn't help but get irritated at their pestering. She often snapped at them that she was fine and that they should stop hovering over her. They did let up a bit when she seemed to have recovered from the homeroom incident the next day, but they still kept a watchful eye on her as the week went on.

One evening late that week, the Wildcats were wrapping up an intense basketball practice. Coach Bolton called the team in for a huddle, the boys jogging to center court dripping in sweat. "Good practice, team!" the coach encouraged, patting his nearest player on the back. "Keep that up and we'll have those back-to-back championships in the bag!" The team cheered and clapped in their enthusiasm for their team's success. "Chad…" Coach Bolton prompted the co-captain.

"Alright, guys. Hands in." The boys crowded together and put their hands in the middle of the huddle. "What team?" Chad yelled.

"WILDCATS!" the team responded.

"WHAT team?" Chad repeated, louder this time.

"WILDCATS!"

"WHAT TEAM?!"

"WILDCATS!"

"WILDCATS!" Chad screamed with a smile of pride on his face.

"GETCHA HEAD IN THE GAME!" the team yelled back before devolving into more cheers as their hands shot into the air in unison. They were then allowed to disperse, heading towards the locker room to change shower up.

Troy and Chad made their way over to their gym bags in the bleachers to grab towels to wipe the sweat from their faces. Both of them pulled out their phones to check for messages from their girlfriends. Troy had nothing, but that didn't surprise him - Gabi knew he had practice. But Chad threw his phone with a frustrated grunt as soon as he finished a reply message. "What's up, dude?" Troy asked, taking a step back from his obviously pissed off best friend.

"Taylor just cancelled our date for tonight," Chad explained, angrily gathering his water bottle and towel before swinging his gym bag over his shoulder.

"Woah. Why? I thought things were going well with you two…." Troy probed, hoping to help Chad sort through the situation.

"That's the thing, I thought so, too! She's probably fucking studying again! Ugh! I get it. We're graduating. Grades count. Blah blah blah. But I thought we had agreed to keep the relationship going through graduation before she's off to Yale…." It was then that Chad's phone went off, a message from Taylor popping up on the screen. Chad huffed for a moment and just stared at the phone laying between the bleacher seats from his angry outburst. Troy stared at him, his eyebrows raised in warning that Chad should check his phone. With a sigh, Chad did so, taking a moment in silence to read the response.

But when Chad let out a sigh and put his phone in his gym bag side pocket more calmly, Troy was lost. "Chad?" Troy probed, confused by Chad's sudden coolness.

"She said she's with Gabster. Something about her not feeling well." Troy went pale. Gabi was sick and he hadn't heard from her or Taylor? He frantically grabbed for his phone and dialed his girlfriend. As the phone rang, Chad tried to calm his friend. "Hoops, it's fine. Taylor's with her. She said to tell you Gabs is fine."

Troy looked up into his friend's eyes, looking for any sign he was lying. Troy saw none as the call kicked to voicemail. "I'm just worried about her, Chad…." He had a slight tone of defeat as he gave up hopes of Gabriella answering her phone. Troy pulled his open gym bag up onto his shoulder, and the co-captains made their way to the locker room. But as they walked, Troy sent a message to Taylor asking for a real status report on Gabriella.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, man. Just a touch of the flu or…" he thought for a moment, "Too much studying or something. If I studied as much as that girl, it'd be sure to make me sick!" Chad laughed at his joke as he elbowed Troy in the side to get him to laugh too. Troy chuckled along which seemed to appease Chad, who took off for the showers. But as soon as he was out of sight, Troy's smile drooped as he checked his phone again, only to get the same message as Chad had relayed: **She's okay. She doesn't want you to worry. I'll stay with her for a while.** But Troy wasn't happy with that. He needed to see for himself. But just as he was composing a message that told Taylor he'd drive over to Gabi's as soon as he showered, a second message from Taylor came through: **She says you don't need to come over. She's okay.**

Troy was shocked. How could Taylor have known what he was writing? He responded: **Why does she think I'd come over there?** He wanted to play it cool, keep Gabi from getting too irritated with him for his worry, yet he wanted to be by her side to know she was okay.

Taylor's reply was simple: **She knows you.** Troy couldn't help but smile at that, even if it was with a slight eye roll. He sent another text that asked Taylor thanking her for looking out for Gabriella and asking her to let him know if anything changed.

He checked in a couple more times that evening but got no information of consequence. By the time he had finished his homework, he was told that Gabi was resting. He desperately wished he had at least heard from Gabriella herself that evening, but, if she was asleep, she needed her rest. Still slightly concerned, he bedded down for the night, figuring he would find out what was going on when they all met up before school the next day.

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But seeing the girls the next morning did very little to make Troy feel better. Gabriella was quiet and withdrawn. When he wrapped his arm around her waist, she allowed it, but kept her arms crossed around her middle, keeping herself more closed off. She didn't snuggle into his side how she usually did, but she asserted she felt fine. What was worse was when he looked to Taylor for information and she couldn't quite meet his eye.

Never-the-less, their day went on fairly normally, at least as far as Troy could tell. Gabi went to class and talked to Taylor and gave him small pecks on the lips when they would meet in the halls (making sure no teachers were around, of course). But something still felt… off.

The school day finally ended, students clamored through the halls to buses or the student parking lot or extra-curriculars. Troy and his teammates made their way to the gym and locker room to change into their jerseys for practice. As the rest of the team filed out into the gym, Zeke popped his head back into the area with the senior lockers where Troy was sliding his jersey over his head. "You coming, Captain?" Zeke asked, good-naturedly.

"Sure, man. Be right there," he assured his teammate, who then took off out towards the gym. Just as Troy was shoving all of his belongings into his locker, his phone rang with Gabriella's picture appearing on the screen. "Hey, you!' Troy greeted. "Are you -"

"I need to see you," she cut in, not letting him finish his question.

"Okay…." Troy tried to keep the confusion out of his voice. "I can come over after practice, if you want," he offered.

"No, my mom will be home then!" Gabriella's voice sounded a bit panicked and it tied Troy's stomach into a knot of worry.

"Gabi, are you okay?"

There was a bit of a pause that Troy tried not to think too much about. "Yeah… yeah. It's just… it's important."

"What's going on, Gabriella?"

"Just… please, Troy…." Troy had heard Gabriella's voice sound a myriad of ways in their time together: angry, frustrated, fearful, confident, teasing, playful, hurt… But he had never heard her voice sound like that. It sounded like she was pleading with him.

Troy was torn. He knew his team was out there waiting for him, but Gabriella didn't say things were important if they weren't. "Okay. I'll… I'll be right over." Troy was sure he hadn't ever changed out of his jersey faster before he took off out a side door of the locker room and jogged to his truck.

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Once Troy arrived at Gabriella's house, he parked on a side street that was closer to her backyard. He made his way to the large tree near her room, climbing to the white balcony and up over its railing, a pattern of motions that seemed practically second-nature to him now. There were days he took this path and he would think of himself as a literal Romeo, climbing to his Juliet's balcony- he will never forgive Darbus for actually making him relate Shakespeare to his own life. But when he reached the French doors with the interior curtains pulled back, he could see Gabriella, watching expectantly for his arrival from her bed. He gave her a smile, but the smile he got in return was small, almost grim. Something was wrong.

Gabriella crossed to the door to let him in. "Hey," she said, trying to be as nonchalant as possible, but her worry seeped into her voice.

"Hey, what's going on?" Troy replied, rushing to take her waist and look into her eyes, searching for the glint that told him she was okay. He couldn't quite find it and that made Troy feel like he had just been hit in the gut with a ball he was meant to catch.

Gabriella stared up at him. She fought to make herself talk, but she couldn't get any words to come out. She broke from his grasp and crossed to the far side of her bed and sat down, facing away from him before she could even manage to get out, "It's nothing. I shouldn't have asked you here. Go…go back to practice. You'll be in trouble."

Troy knew better. He wasn't about to leave her like this. On his knees, he crawled across the bed to wrap his arms around his girlfriend from behind. From that height, he leaned down and gave her a kiss on top of her head, taking in the familiar scent of her shampoo as he did. He kept his voice calm, trying to get Gabriella to open up to him. "Hey, I'm not going anywhere. What's the matter, Gabi?"

"I…I can't…."

"Hey, it's just me," he reassured her, tilting her chin up so she was looking at him, hoping this reminder – that it was the same old Troy – would help her say whatever was clearly weighing so heavily on her.

Gabriella took a deep breath and let it out as she turned her face away from him again. She couldn't bear to see his reaction when she said it. "… I'm late…"

"Late? What do you mean, late? Hell, Gabi, you're always early for everything."

"No, Troy. _I'm_ late," she said, forcing herself to look him in the eye to try to make her point clear. Her pointed stare and emphasis did their job after a moment. Realization washed over Troy.

His whole body had gone numb, like the time the team was forced to run suicides for a whole practice. He swallowed hard. "H-how late?" He tried to keep his composure, but his voice betrayed his nerves as it broke.

"Several days….over a week..." She bit her lip anxiously. "Almost two…." Gabi stared at the ground, unable to bring herself to look anywhere else.

Troy's eyes closed and his brow furrowed in despair and frustration with himself. "I'm so sorry, Gabi." The words escaped at barely a whisper before he could really process them. But what else could he say? Sorry was all he had and this was so far beyond sorry.

"It-it isn't your fault, Troy. I was there, too."

"Yes, but – "

"Stop," she said strongly, cutting him off. "Placing blame isn't going to help."

Then there was silence. Troy's head was swimming - how could he do this, especially to Gabi? What was going to happen now?

Troy pressed the whirling thoughts to edges of his mind and tried to find a path that was less scary to think about. Finally he got up the courage to speak again, trying to get a gauge on the situation. "Who else knows?"

"Taylor, but that's it."

"Have you…have you taken a test or anything?"

"No, not yet. I…I've been too scared. And I felt like you needed to know."

"Yeah…" It's true. He wouldn't have wanted her to be so afraid and hide it from him. He did need to know if he could… could be a father. "So, what do we do now?"

"It could just be stress," Gabi said, not only trying to diffuse the conversation she was stuck in, which was unbearably uncomfortable, but also to try to convince herself that it was the case. "There's been a lot going on lately, with college applications and scholarships and tours plus the yearbook and school work. Maybe it's nothing…. I shouldn't have worried you. I'm sure it's fine," she said, her pace increasing as she grabbed a book and went to her desk. "I think you can still make the last half of practice. I have lots of studying to do. I'm sorry I made you skip practice for no reason."

"Woah. Gabi," Troy said, scooting himself back across her bed to get closer to her at the desk. "Hey. This isn't nothing. Has this ever happened before? The lateness, I mean." He tried to not let the fact that he was incredibly uncomfortable bleed into his words.

"N-no. Not that I remember. Not for this long." Her eyes stayed glued to her book, despite the fact she hadn't even opened it.

Troy focused on keeping his breathing steady, even though he could feel the last bits of hope slipping from him. "Do…do you want to take a test? See what it says?" Gabi couldn't look Troy in the face. He was being so sweet and all she could feel was guilt. She gave a slight shrug. "Hey, look at me, right at me." She couldn't help but let a slight smile slip across her lips, remembering when he had used that exact phrasing as they stood onstage for their winter musical call back. And it worked. She found comfort in his eyes then. She looked up, fighting to keep the brimming tears from her eyes. "No matter what it says, I'm going to be right here." She saw a sureness in his eyes that warmed her heart. She gave in and gave a small nod.

Troy let out a breath that he didn't quite remember holding. "Okay. So….do we go to any particular store or…." Troy felt clueless. It was one thing to have no clue what Darbus was talking about when she drabbed on about the "theatrical arts", but he felt his cheeks blushing at the fact he was so clueless about something that was so real and happening to them.

"Taylor bought some for me. She wanted me to take them before I told you, but I just…couldn't." Troy gave a small nod, though part of him wished she had so they would know what was happening.

"I'll…I'll be right here, then?" he asked, not sure what he should do. He felt awkward, an unusual feeling for the star basketball player.

Gabriella gave him a small, weak smile of appreciation before disappearing into her bathroom.

It felt like she had been behind that closed door for hours. Troy was left alone, sitting on the edge of her bed, stuck in his own thoughts. What if it's positive? What would happen? But even if it's negative, does that really mean negative? Could there be something wrong with Gabi then, if it were negative and she was still this late? His brain was swimming; he couldn't focus his thoughts. He was desperately afraid and he hated it, but he also knew he couldn't fall apart. If he were scared, he couldn't even dare to imagine how Gabriella must have felt.

Snapping him out of his thoughts was his ringing phone. He honestly couldn't deal with anyone at that moment and hit the side button to make the ringing stop. But when it rang again almost immediately, he had to pull it out and saw his best friend's face on the screen. Reluctantly, he picked it up.

"Chad, I can't talk right now," Troy said into the phone, hoping it would get rid of his friend on the other end.

"Dude, where are you? Your dad is steaming mad you missed practice."

Troy let out a sigh. Yeah, he figured that was going to happen. "Look, something came up. I couldn't be there. He'll get over it."

"Hoops, you don't get it. He went and screamed at Darbus, thinking she had pulled you in for detention again. He made the team do bleacher runs the whole practice because no one would break down and tell him where you were – because we couldn't. No one knew. He's snapped his cap, man!"

"Chad, I couldn't be there. I had somewhere I needed to be. Dad will deal."

"And where is it you had to be that was so damn important that your whole team had to suffer for it, huh, Captain? Where is it that you have to be so vague that even your best friend since Kindergarten isn't being told where you are?"

Troy heard a click and looked up to see Gabi standing in the bathroom doorway, pale and tear-streaked. "Dude, seriously, I have to go. Tell my dad I'll be home late if you hear from him." Troy thought he might be sick with nerves and the longer he was on the phone, the longer he went on not knowing.

"Hoops! What's going on?"

"I'm with Gabi. I have to go," and he hung up the phone. He knew that wasn't going to go over well and that he'd have to deal with that fallout later, but he didn't care. He had to get off the phone. He had to know. "Gabi?" he asked gently, crossing the room to her and giving her a kiss on her forehead. When he pulled away from the kiss he looked down and saw the test in her hand. Even upside down, he could read the word "pregnant" across the small screen. "Maybe… maybe this one is defective. We'll go get another one." He knew he sounded desperate, grasping for some hope, some way that this wasn't real.

Gabi swallowed hard. "I had other ones Troy." Her words were so soft that, if Troy weren't right next to her, he couldn't have heard. "Two lines, a plus. They all say the same thing…."

Troy's body went numb again. His stomach dropped. All he could manage to think were curse words and he forced himself to keep them in his head. Gabriella melted into his arms, soaking his Wildcat red shirt with tears. She was heaving in her sobbing, and he knew he had to get her to calm down before she made herself sick. "Shh. Gabi, breathe. Come here." He gently guided them back to her bed. They sat on the edge together, Gabi's face still in Troy's shoulder. Troy gently removed himself from her side to bend down in front of her, removing her flats. He kicked off his tennis shoes as well, leaving them in a pile with her shoes. He then crouched down in front of her so he could catch her eye. "Shh, just relax. Take a breath, babe. Please." She wiped her eyes so she could clearly see his face. They took a deep breath together, Gabi's breath breaking in the middle. "Okay, good. Another." They breathed again, Gabriella successfully completing the deep breath that time. "One more. Good. Okay." Troy grabbed her ankles and swung her feet up onto her bed, putting her into a lying position. He scooted in beside her, holding her tight to him. Cuddling was all he had in his power to attempt to make her feel better, to keep her calm, and he hoped it would work, at least for the moment.

Tears still streamed from Gabi's eyes, but she had calmed significantly. The warmth and strength in his embrace comforted her more than ever before.

It was then that Troy's phone rang again.

Gabi sat up, startled. "It's okay, it's just my phone," Troy reassured her as he pulled it out of his pocket, but he knew it wasn't okay. He knew that ringtone. It was his dad. Troy stared at the phone for a moment then chose to ignore the call and placed his phone on silent. Gabriella didn't need to hear him getting yelled at right now.

"Troy, you should go. You're going to get in trouble." Gabriella started to pull away from him to let him get up; her voice had a slight pleading in it, wanting to keep the situation from getting any worse.

"Hey," he said, gathering her tighter into his arms, leading her to lie back down. "I told you that I would be here, so I'm not going anywhere." She couldn't help but give him a small smile as she settled her head back into place on his chest.

Before she realized it, Gabi had drifted off to sleep in the comfort of Troy's arms. Troy was just on the edge of doing so as well when he heard the slam of a door come from downstairs. "Gabriella, you home?" The faint words floated through the closed bedroom door and washed over Troy, leaving an impending sense of dread. Troy then heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He started to sit up, but it was too late to bolt now. Then the doorknob turned and in walked Gabriella's mother.

* * *

 _ **A/N: It's so odd that we're already to this point. In my original thoughts for the story, I figured this wouldn't come until we were a few more chapters in. However, with this being a central conflict, introducing it now works, I think. I** **really** **hope that this doesn't turn anyone off of this story or seem too cliché. I know there are other "Gabriella's pregnant" stories. But I really hope you stick with me. I hope to focus on their relationship more than the pregnancy and hope to do so smoothly. Also, my apologies for the slightly cliché cliffhanger ending. I wanted to start giving you all some drama. Send me your thoughts – I'd love to hear them! This scene in Gabi's bedroom is the first thing I ever wrote for this story, so I'm excited to share it!**_


	3. Chapter 3

Senior Year: Graduating Childhood

Chapter Three

* * *

As the doorknob rattled and the latch clicked, Troy fought a bit harder to sit up, stirring Gabriella. "Troy?" she mumbled, coming out of her sleepy haze.

"I-I'm here," he reassured her, his voice breaking as his eyes darted from her mother back to the girl in his arms.

"And so am I," came a voice sterner than Troy had ever heard from Ms. Montez.

Gabriella jumped and sat up in bed. Troy swung his feet off the edge of the bed and stood, starting to slide his shoes back on. "Mom!" Gabriella said. "What are you doing home?"

"It's past six, Gabriella. What's going on?" She seemed to be watching the very guilty-looking Troy out of the corner of her eye. And, in all fairness, he had a lot to feel guilty about. It just wasn't what Ms. Montez was thinking in that moment. Gabriella's mother's lips pursed. Troy had never seen her look like that before. She was usually very welcoming to him. But suddenly he saw her look turn back to Gabriella, "You're smarter than this. You can't –"

"Ms. Montez, please," Troy cut in, knowing that Gabi couldn't take the disappointment from her mother, particularly not now. "It's my fault. Gabi wasn't feeling well. I wanted to make sure she was okay. When she fell asleep, I didn't want to disturb her…." His pace was frantic, but the story was plausible, even partly true. He watched Ms. Montez closely as she looked at Gabriella's bowed head and back to him. He was desperately trying to be brave, despite his heart racing faster than when he was on the court for a big game. After a moment, he swallowed hard and offered a slightly further comfort. "Nothing happened…" he promised, his tone giving away the truthfulness of the statement.

The room fell into silence. Troy felt as if he had to remind to himself to take each breath. He wanted desperately to look over to Gabriella but worried if he looked away from her mom, she might think he was lying.

Gabriella's mom took in the scene and Troy's words. They had been on top of the covers, the bed still made. Their clothes were all still on. And as her eyes made their way back over to her daughter, she noted that Gabriella did look a little pale. After what seemed like an eternity, Ms. Montez gave Troy a curt nod, telling him she understood. "You should be getting home, Troy. I can take over from here."

Troy's mouth opened as he went to retort, to protest, to say he couldn't leave her, that he needed to be here. But he abruptly shut it again. He had no words that wouldn't raise suspicion, and there was no way in hell they were ready to even consider telling Gabriella's mother about their situation. Troy gave a short nod of understanding and finished putting his shoes on. "I hope you feel better, Gabi," he said before heading for the bedroom door. He was too afraid of crossing Ms. Montez to venture a kiss goodbye. Gabriella looked up at him when he reached the bedroom door and their eyes met. He looked at her with all sincerity and love he had in him as he assured her, "I'll have my phone if you need anything." He hoped that would be enough.

Gabriella gave him a very weak smile, one he could tell was only out of understanding for their odd goodbyes, before he forced himself to turn and leave the room.

Troy made his way down to his truck before pulling his phone out to send Gabriella a real message, but the first thing he saw on the screen were the 9 missed calls from his dad's number. He knew that wasn't going to end well for him. But he also knew he would take the absolute worst his father could dish out if only he could take away that fear from Gabriella's eyes. Troy's head was swimming again, but now he couldn't even pretend to sort through all of the thoughts rushing through his mind. Babies and hospitals and parents and crying and colleges and tears and plus signs and hyperventilating and the heart pounding sound in his ears– it all kept spinning and spinning and he couldn't make it stop and he couldn't breathe and all he could do was scream. "SON OF A BITCH!" he yelled, loud enough that anyone anywhere near his truck easily could of heard. He slammed his head back against the headrest in frustration and anger and he banged his hangs off of the steering wheel, accidently blaring the horn.

Then his head fell forward and rested against the top of the steering wheel. His breathing was labored and his ears were ringing. He sat there for a few moments, letting his breathing slowly return to normal on its own before he took a deep breath and reached for his phone again. He cleared the missed calls and finally sent his text to Gabi. **Im so sorry. We'll figure this out. Hang in there. I love you.** He took another deep breath and started the truck to make the dreaded drive home.

* * *

Troy parked his truck and, as quietly as he could, made his way in through the back door to the kitchen. As he came in, he found his mom putting away the remnants of dinner. "There's a plate in the microwave," she told him, her voice fairly devoid of emotion.

"Thank you," Troy said, somewhat timidly, eyeing her closely. "Where's dad?"

"In his study. He's really not happy with you, Troy."

Troy gave a small nod. He had anticipated that. "I figured. Might as well get this over with," he said with a sigh, grabbing a roll to eat before his mom put them away.

He found his dad staring at his legal pad, drawing a pattern of X's and O's with arrows every which way. "Hey, dad. Um… sorry I missed your calls. My phone was on silent." Again, not a total lie…

"Where were you?" Coach Bolton didn't even look up at Troy to ask his question as Troy stood awkwardly at the doorway to the office.

"Gabriella was sick. I was with her until her mom came home."

"That girl… again."

 _'That girl'?_ Troy's jaw clenched. "Dad, I thought we had gotten past this." His tone was tight, closed off. As if he needed more emotions coursing through his body tonight, Troy was getting pissed. He tentative took a few steps into the room, squaring his shoulders for a showdown.

"Not when you are a blatant no show for practice, Troy!" Troy's dad had finally looked up at his son who now stood in front of his desk but was desperate to be anywhere but there. The disappointment, frustration, and outright anger on his father's face hit Troy hard. "You've got to grow up. U of A isn't going to put up with shit like this."

Troy rolled his eyes and his volume increased a few notches. "Of course, it's all about U of A!" He was so sick of hearing about that damn school. He'd been engulfed in it all summer and it practically lost him his best friend and Gabriella.

"High school doesn't last forever, Troy! I won't be your coach forever; your team won't always be the guys you've been with since Kindergarten who will cover for you!"

Troy wasn't going to let that go. He wasn't about to let his teammates be thrown under the bus again for him. "They didn't know! I didn't even really know. I just knew she needed me!"

Jack Bolton's jaw clenched, too, his breathing labored in attempts to keep some semblance of composure in his fury. "Well, maybe you need to…to take a break, get refocused." He looked back down at this legal pad. He knew that wasn't going to go over well, but he was at his wits' end.

Troy couldn't believe he was hearing his father correctly. "Take a break? From Gabriella? You're fucking kidding, right? I'm not breaking up with her! Especially not now!" It was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"Hey, you watch your language," Jack snapped. Then the rest of Troy's outburst registered with him. "What do you mean "especially not now"? What's going on?"

"Just… with college being so close and us going to different schools…." Troy used every acting technique Darbus had taught him last year to cover the panic he felt when he realized what he had said. With a plausible answer on the stable, he changed the subject. "Look, make me run the bleachers or suicides or shoot a hundred free throws next practice, I don't care. But you don't dictate my life beyond that. You can't control everything!" And with that, Troy made his way up to his room, slamming the door closed and flopping onto his bed. He picked up a pillow and angrily chucked it across the room, knocking a framed piece of basketball memorabilia to the floor. He took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself.

Troy pulled his phone out of his pocket to check on Gabriella and see if she had responded. Instead, he had a message from Chad. **Dude ditching practice 2 b w/ ur girl? How low can u get?**

Troy let out a sigh. He knew that Chad was going to be upset. **Look, it was important. Im sorry.**

Within moments, Chad responded. **Must have been some good sex 2 leave ur team hanging.**

Troy felt like he had been punched in the throat. He could barely believe the words he was reading were coming from his best friend. It took Troy a moment to process Chad's accusation and form a response. **It wasnt for sex, man. It wasnt. I just had to be there.**

 **Then tell me what the hell is going on! I know Gabi is important 2 u but this isnt like you man.**

Troy read Chad's message again… and then a third time. He couldn't deny it. This wasn't like him. But he also knew that Chad would understand if only he knew…. Troy wracked his brain for how to fix this, but he came up blank. He started typing a message and then erase it. Then he tried again. No words on that glowing screen seemed to be enough to make up for lying to his best friend. With a deep breath and his heart in his throat, Troy typed his reply: **… I can't say. Not over text. Meet me the park in 10.** He didn't really know what he was going to say when he got there, but maybe Chad would at least see the seriousness and guilt in Troy's demeanor if they were face-to-face.

A moment later, Troy felt a small bit of pressure lift off his chest as he read Chad's reply. **Fine. On my way.**

Troy stormed back down the stairs, his anger toward his father surging again as he realized he would have to pass right by him. With sure focus and teeth clenched, he went straight out the front door, ignoring his father's angry call of "Where are you going?"

* * *

When Troy reached the park near his house, he could see the figure of his best friend sitting on the hill by the basketball court, the distinct silhouette of Chad's hair giving him away. Troy made his way over and flopped down beside him, his elbows resting on bent knees. They sat in silence for a moment and Troy could feel the awkward tension pulsing in the air. "Hey," he started, not daring to look over at Chad directly. He just desperately wanted to know that his best friend would speak to him at all.

"Hey," was all Troy got from his best friend, but at least it was something.

"Dude, I'm sorry." Troy's voice had every bit of sincerity he could muster. And it was true, honest sincerity, but it didn't seem to do much to appease Chad.

"You can tell that to Zeke who blew chunks twice from running those bleacher so hard."

Troy rubbed his hand across his face in frustration. "I didn't know my dad would react that way. I thought he would just take it out on me."

There was silence. Chad looked over at his best friend from the corner of his eye. He could tell Troy felt awful. He also knew that his best friend wouldn't purposefully make the team suffer. This seemed to help settle Chad's anger a bit, but he could also tell there was something more to it than what Troy was telling him. "So why did you need to be with Gabster?"

Troy paled a bit. Without thinking, he sputtered out his standard response."Uh…she was sick." That excuse had worked on Ms. Montez and it was all Troy could come up with, but he instantly regretted it.

"Sick? That's what Taylor told me when she had to cancel our date to be with Gabi. Plus she was sick in homeroom the other day, right? What's wrong with her?" While the situation seemed odd to Chad, he was also a bit concerned for his best friend's girl to be so sick.

 _Shit,_ Troy thought, realizing that Chad knew far too much for this standard cover story to be believable. "Not sure, but her mom was pissed when she came home and found us in bed together." He was blatantly changing the subject; he knew his friend would take the bait. At least it would get him out of the hole he had dug.

"What?" Chad's eyes grew wide. "Dude, she was sick and you guys still – "

"No, no," Troy cut him off. He may often need to protect his male ego, but he wasn't about to make it sound like he made Gabi have sex when she was sick. "I was holding her. She fell asleep on my chest. But when her mom came home, she found us like that. Luckily she believed me when I said that nothing happened."

Chad's eyebrows were raised in his surprise at the situation Troy had gotten himself into. He was even more surprised Troy seemed to have escaped unscathed. "So, none of the parents are the wiser that you two…."

"Not that I know of. I think we'd know if they did." Troy and Gabi had done everything in their power to keep their parents from finding out their relationship had turned intimate. But Troy could feel that slowly slipping from their control. And if his dad's rage was already this bad, he'd hate to see what he'd do if he found out they were sleeping together. "But my dad tried to get me to break up with Gabi again."

"What?!" Chad was surprised that Troy's dad would be so harsh knowing how much Gabi meant to Troy. It was one thing when they had first met, but now? "That's low, even for Coach."

"Yeah, said I need to 'refocus'." Troy got lost in his thoughts for a moment, stuck on his aggravation with his father's demand for him to break up with Gabriella. In his distracted state, Troy continued his thoughts out loud, not fully realizing he was doing so. "If he only knew…. My focus is right where it needs to be." He may have said the latter part of this under his breath, but Chad heard him anyway.

Chad's head snapped towards Troy. "What does that mean? Hoops, what you are talking about; what's going on? I know there's something you're not telling me…."

Troy thought his heart might have stopped as he internally fought with himself. It wasn't like no one else knew – Taylor knew the truth. Or at least she knew there was a strong possibility. But that was Gabi's choice to tell her. And yet, he was going to need someone in his corner, too. He was torn. He didn't want Gabriella to feel he had betrayed her, but no matter what was going to happen, they were going to need support. Troy's leg bounced nervously as he turned the thoughts around and around in his head. He could feel Chad's gaze boring into him, waiting for an answer. Troy looked up at his best friend, at the person who had been with him through it all, and he knew he couldn't hide this from him. "Seriously, man, if I tell you, it stays here. I don't even know what Gabi wants to do, so I don't know that I should be telling anyone…."

"It stays here, man. I swear." Chad could feel the magnitude of whatever was about to be said. But it was weird; he didn't think he had ever heard Troy be this serious for this long before. "But I have to say, you've been spending too much time in the theatre – you're making this really dramatic." He tried to poke fun, break a little of the tension. But Troy didn't even really seem capable of registering humor at that moment.

Troy let out a sigh, fighting to find words that didn't make him feel like he might vomit. "Gabi's…. I mean, we think she's…. we're pretty sure that…. It's been a week and….."

"Dude, spit it out."

"Gabi's pregnant!" Troy blurted before he could finally meet Chad's gaze again. Chad's mouth hung open, but he was silent. "At least, we're pretty sure she is. She took like three tests and they all were positive."

"Holy fuck, man." Chad was in shock. His eyes looked like they might pop out of his head at any moment. "How'd that happen?"

"My guess? New Year's…." Troy rubbed his face with both of his hands, his frustration with himself rushing over him again. "God, I'm an idiot."

Chad desperately wanted to make a comment about two different kinds of fireworks that night or ask for details on such a crazy celebration, but he fought the urge. "Dude, come on! Every guy knows that stupid staying: "no glove, no love!""

Troy let out a frustrated groan before speaking through gritted teeth, "There was a glove, Chad."

Chad froze. "What?"

"We were careful, Chad. As if Gabriella, the most prepared person in the world, would allow anything else," Troy explained, allowing himself to crack a bit of a smile thinking of his girl and her quirks that made her so adorable to him. "Things just…didn't go according to plan…."

Chad seemed to be a bit panicked. "Dude, you're seriously giving me a heart attack. You've got to give a guy more details than this. If you were careful, how are we having this conversation?"

Troy let out a sigh. "Things got a little… carried away… and it… broke." Troy pressed his eyebrows together as the guilt consumed him. "I didn't know until after…."

"Shit, man…."

There was a long silence.

Chad felt for his friend and searched for words that were remotely helpful. He knew he had been a bit of an ass and Troy didn't deserve that, not when this is what he was dealing with.

Finally, as the street lights kicked on, Chad broke the silence again. "So…what happens now?"

"I don't know. We didn't really have the chance to talk about it. She was hysterical, so that's why I had her lay down. That's why we were in bed when her mom came home."

"Fuck…." Chad felt completely lost. After thirteen years of mischief and struggles together, he had no idea how to help Troy. That powerlessness felt like a kick to the gut. What do you say to your best friend in a situation like this? "I'm sorry I gave you so much shit. You're right. Your focus is where it needs to be - it needs to be on Gabriella."

"Thanks," Troy said and Chad pulled him into a bro-hug. "I feel awful about practice. Zeke really puked?"

"Yeah, it was rough. But he's fine. Coach stopped us after the second time so he could go shower."

Troy shook his head. What the hell was wrong with his dad? There was a moment of stillness as the reality of Troy's situation settled in before Troy spoke again. "Chad?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm scared."

* * *

 ** _A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The scene at the park is one of my favorites and I really enjoyed digging into Troy's character in this chapter. I hope I did him justice._**


	4. Chapter 4

Senior Year: Graduating Childhood

Chapter Four

* * *

The next morning, Troy awoke to a text from Gabriella. **Not going to school. Mom knows something's up. Pick up my homework for me?**

Troy rubbed his eyes, forcing himself awake to focus on a reply. He was not looking forward to a whole day away from her, and he was worried about her. **Sure. Are you ok?** Troy hated the fact he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her for the day. After such a rough day the day before, he wanted to be sure she was okay - the kind of 'okay' where he could help her and be there for her if she needed him. With that snatched away, he was uneasy.

Her reply popped up quickly as Troy was struggling to sit up in bed. **We'll talk when you bring my stuff. You don't have practice, right?**

Troy wasn't oblivious to the fact she didn't answer his question. Her evasiveness made him even more concerned. **Not today. Last day off before the big game. Im worried about you.**

 **Mom will be home late. We'll have time to talk.** Before Troy could respond in hopes of getting some straighter answers from her, a second message came through. **Troy, I'm scared.**

Troy hung his head, guilt filling his overly tired body. **Me 2, babe. We'll figure it out.** Maybe if he told her that enough, he would start to believe it, too.

The morning dragged on. He was sure he retained nothing. All he could think about was Gabriella. When he finally made it to lunch, he practically ran in the opposite direction of the cafeteria toward his spot on the roof, desperately checking his phone for messages from Gabriella just to be greeted by a blank notification screen.

When the bell rang, he sluggishly made his way to his locker. He wasn't sure why he even bothered to get his books – he was sure he wasn't going to retain anything in his afternoon classes either. In his distracted haze, he didn't notice the quick pace of the young woman who came up behind him to slam his locker door shut and get his attention. "What happened?" Taylor asked, her voice practically frantic.

"What?" Troy was irritable with nerves and being snapped out of his solitude so abruptly didn't help.

"What happened? Why isn't she here?"

"Gabi?" he asked, the pieces starting to fit into place. Taylor gave him a look that told him she thought he was being stupid. He took a deep breath before measuring his words carefully, "You know why she isn't here." He couldn't say much out in the open hallway for fear of someone overhearing.

Taylor looked directly into Troy's eyes, searching for more information. Unable to find it, she grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him down the hall into an empty classroom. "She told you?"

"Yeah, yesterday. And she…she took the tests," Troy admitted, his lips pressing together from the anxiety of saying it out loud.

"So, she's at the clinic, then?"

Troy gave Taylor an odd look. "What?"

"That's why she's not here, right?"

Troy was incredibly confused. What clinic? "Taylor, what the hell are you talking about?"

"The clinic…the family planning clinic. I got her directions the other day when I was over there…." Taylor was speaking to Troy as if he were the stupidest child on the planet, one who needed step by step information and still wasn't figuring out a seemingly simple task.

But Troy truly was completely clueless. Gabriella hadn't mentioned anything about a clinic the night before. Not that they had had a lot of time to talk about much, but it still wasn't adding up. Did Gabi really need to see a doctor that quickly? "Why would she go there?" Troy asked, resigned to being treated like an idiot – he sure felt like one because he had no idea what Taylor was trying to ask him.

Taylor was suddenly uneasy and her eyes grew wide as she realized Troy wasn't privy to what she and Gabi had discussed. "I thought you said you talked to her…."

"Taylor, what the hell is going on?!" Troy's patience was wearing thin and he was getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Taylor could see he was getting angry…or scared? She wasn't quite sure. But she had opened her big mouth, so there really wasn't any turning back now. "We…we talked the other night when she was first getting worried about what was going on. I-I thought I was helping her by giving her an out, helping her know her options. Troy – wait!"

But it was too late. Troy ran from the room, leaving his books on a desk and ignoring the bell that told him he was late to class. He wasn't going anyway. He took a quick turn and entered the auditorium, knowing it would be empty at that time of day, thankful to the theatre for being an escape for him once again. As he made his way through the dimly lit auditorium, a few miscellaneous set pieces came into focus on the stage. There, hanging from the fly rail, was the crescent moon from his duet in the second act of "Twinkletown." It felt like an eternity ago that he had shared that stage with Gabriella, when their biggest worry was their friends' acceptance as they broke the status quo. But now, that all seemed so trivial to Troy when everything about his and Gabi's futures was hanging in the balance. He desperately wanted to escape again, to disappear back onto that stage with her, if only to escape the feeling of their lives spiraling out of control. He never thought he would be wishing to perform again, but up there, the world made so much more sense to him. Onstage, there was order. Choreography, scripted lines, cues for set pieces – he had learned what to expect. Off the stage, his life was all improvisation and chaos and Troy didn't know what lines came next…Behind him, he heard the auditorium door rattle and he suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and darted out the stage door towards his truck.

* * *

Troy ignored the speed limits and several traffic laws to get to her house. He reached Gabriella's back yard and paused for a moment, staring up at her balcony. _Well, this isn't how it went for Romeo, that's for damn sure,_ he thought with a bit of scoff before making the climb as fast as he could. He swung his feet over the balcony rail and frantically banged on the glass of the French doors. _Please be here, please be here. Come on, Gabi._ It felt like forever until the lock clicked and the door opened. "Troy, what are you doing here? It's the middle of the day."

"Did you go?" Troy was breathless and frantic.

"Go where?" she asked weakly, trying to understand the panic on his face.

"To the clinic. Did you go?" Desperation crept into his voice. Why wasn't she answering him?

"You talked to Taylor." It wasn't a question. Taylor was the only one who could have told him such a thing. Gabriella turned around and started to make her way back into her room.

"Gabi…" He was practically begging her for an answer, still not moving from his spot.

"No, Troy. I didn't." Troy could breathe again. He rushed to her and pulled her into his arms in a tight hug. Before he could say a word, she continued on. "If I did, it could have all happened in one day and that just felt too fast. I… I wanted to talk to you."

Troy pulled back from the hug. "And how do you know that – that it could happen in one day?"

"Um….I've been… researching. Trying to figure out what to do." She pulled away from him and made her way to her desk chair. She couldn't meet his gaze. It was hard enough to even consider what to do, but it was made so much harder to say so out loud to him.

Troy felt his stomach sink. He forced himself to breathe. It felt as if something was stuck in his throat, making it hard for him to get sound out to respond to her. "Gabi?" The strangled sound of her name was all he could manage.

"Why are you here, Troy? You're supposed to be at school." She wasn't ready for this conversation. She thought she still had a few hours to prepare.

"I was worried…. I didn't want you to have…." He couldn't finish that sentence, but he didn't really need to.

"You didn't?" She finally was able to look up at him. That wasn't really the reaction she had anticipated, though she wasn't sure why. It wasn't like Troy was heartless - quite the opposite in fact - but she still was surprised at his response.

Troy finally was able to force himself to move. He went to her, crouching down in front of her as she sat in her desk chair. "No. Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. I guess….I just thought that…. I thought it'd be easier if it just went away."

Troy felt like he was going to be sick. In a way, sure, that may have sounded easy. But yet, it wasn't, and the option hadn't even entered his mind until he talked to Taylor. He took her hands in his, linking their fingers and squeezing, hoping the pressure would reinforce his presence and help calm her. "I know this is hard," he offered, trying to find helpful words despite feeling just as lost. But she wouldn't meet his gaze. He needed to get her attention, pull her out of her own mind. "Hey, I'm right here. And I'm not going anywhere," he assured her, her attention finally pulling back to him.

He watched as tears welled in her eyes and her chin quivered. Her chest shook as she desperately tried to hold in her tears and failed. "I don't know what to do, Troy!" He could hear the fear in her voice and he quickly stood and gathered her into his arms as tightly as he could. She buried her face in his shoulder, taking in his scent to try to keep even the slightest bit of composure, but he could hear that she was breaking. He knew he didn't have answers for her, but he also knew he needed to keep her from falling apart.

"So… let's talk about it." Troy's heart was in his throat and felt like it was choking him, but he said he was going to be here with her through this and he damn well was going to live up to that… no matter how terrifying this conversation was to him.

"Really?" she murmured into his chest.

Troy swallowed hard, but fought to hide it. "Yeah. If… if you need to think this through, then we will. I would rather be here and know what you're thinking. I hate that you've been trying to figure this out on your own without telling me."

"I was going to tell you…." she defended, pulling back slightly to look up at him.

"I know. But, I told you, we're in this together." The faintest smile crept onto her face at his support as she gave him a small nod. She took him by the hand and led him over to her bed. She climbed in and settled back against her headboard, pillows behind her back and her computer on her lap. Troy climbed in beside her, scooting himself over against her so he could tangle his fingers between hers and have a better view of the multitude of tabs she had loaded in her browser. "Wow, you have been busy."

"So… where do you want to start?" Her eyes were glued to the screen, scanning the different tab names, trying to figure out which to click, which would help them the most.

"Wherever you want to." Truthfully, he would discuss whatever she needed to, but he also was lost in the sea of websites: Planned Parenthood, New Mexico Abortion Law, Safe Haven Law, Child Adoption Laws New Mexico, New Mexico Child, Youth, and Families Department…. It was all too much for Troy and he knew so little about any of it. He would follow Gabriella's lead.

"Well… the first thing I researched was the clinic Taylor mentioned…." Troy fought to control his nerves and his breathing, to keep himself calm for her. "They do in fact perform… um…" She struggled to be able to say the word aloud. All of this was so hard to say out loud.

"It's okay," Troy told her, giving her had a squeeze to try to get her to relax as she pulled up the information on the screen.

She took a deep breath and continued, "And in our state, there's no waiting period or required parental notification. That's why it can be done in one appointment."

That seemed awfully fast to Troy and he thought briefly how thankful he was she hadn't gone on her own today. But the legal details weren't what he was concerned with. "And it'd be safe for you, right? It wouldn't hurt you?"

There was a slight pause as Gabriella formed her thought carefully. "Not in the long term. Not unless something went wrong."

Troy twisted his head to look into her eyes, but she averted her gaze away. "What does that mean?"

"It means that there is definitely a recovery period." She chose her words carefully, trying not to set off Troy's protective nature too strongly. "It's usually a very safe procedure," she continued with difficulty, still not looking at him as she scrolled down the page to show him more information. "But there are always going to be risks to any medical procedure…."

Troy didn't like what he was hearing. No matter how positively the webpage spun it, he could only focus on the fact that there was no way around things like awful pain, cramps, and possibility of infection for Gabriella.

But he let her continue to point out the different procedure options. It all just seemed so… invasive to Troy. How could she really calmly consider this? He pictured all sorts of medical instruments prodding and poking her and it made his stomach churn. But medication options seemed to have even worse side effects. He remembered being with Gabriella through some pretty intense cramps before, and he had felt completely useless. All he could do was keep her hot water bottle warm and bring ibuprofen whenever she asked and hold her close, but she was still in pain. If she did this, it was going to be so much worse and he wouldn't be able to do anything to help her.

Gabriella seemed to have reached the end of this portion of her presentation and she looked up at him. His eyes were unfocused, glazed over in thought and overwhelming information. "Still with me, Wildcat?" she asked gently. She knew it was a lot. It was a lot for her, too. But she also knew time was limited on this sort of decision; they had no choice but to talk about it.

"Yeah," Troy assured her, rubbing his thumb back and forth on the back of her hand. "Is that all?"

"I had hoped to have more, but I didn't expect to see you until after school." She started clicking again, looking for another link that might provide more information, but Troy reached over and stilled her hand on her keyboard.

"You've given a lot of facts, Gabs. But nowhere in there did you tell me if this is what you want."

Gabriella froze. In all honesty, she hadn't done much thinking on what she _wanted_. She just knew that they had to figure it all out. The tabs on adoption were still untouched, but those also wouldn't point them toward an answer to the question Troy was asking her. She considered for a moment before attempting an answer, "I…I don't know, Troy. In theory, it does sound easier in the long run: no one has to know, no college plans interrupted. Life would go on as planned. It would all just… go away."

Troy was sure some boy scout was in his gut practicing tying knots with his intestines. He felt like he couldn't catch his breath. It's true that the thought of telling his father terrified him, and he'd barely had time to breathe since last night, let alone think about what would happen with college. But something didn't feel right. Would it all just go away? Really? Could it ever truly just disappear? Troy fought to fill his lungs with enough air to ask her, "So does that mean this is what you want to do?"

Gabriella couldn't look at him. Her mind was racing. What did she want? She wanted to go back to New Year's Eve and warn them to choose a different condom. She wanted to go back to summer and find a way to start on birth control as an extra precaution without her mother knowing. She wanted to retest her IQ because there was no way this would happen to someone who was supposed to be as smart as she was. She wanted to wake up and find that she had fallen asleep to some movie or soap opera and her dreams had put her in the leading lady's place. But what did she want to do with this reality? She truly wasn't sure. "What do you want, Troy?" she whispered, still staring off toward the wall of her room.

Troy's head snapped towards her in surprise. "Me? Gabi, this isn't about me." While he knew he had genetic input in the situation, he also knew she could make whatever decision she wanted. His opinion would be just that - an opinion. And while Gabriella wasn't likely to just ignore his wishes, technically, she could if she felt it was necessary. So Troy wasn't about to push anything on her. She was the one who was throwing up. She was the one who had the baby inside of her…..

Baby.

Nowhere on any of those websites had it said that word. And Troy suddenly understood why. It was easier to not. It was easier to talk about the "end of a pregnancy" than it was to think of a baby. He had an image pop into his head of Gabriella holding a small bundle of blankets cradled to her chest. He leaned over and put his arm around her and placed a small kiss on her temple before looking down at the small face poking out from the swaddling….

"Troy?"

He was shaken from the thought and was fighting to put on even the slight appearance of composure. "Sorry," he said simply, bringing himself back to reality with her. She looked up at him expectantly, waiting desperately for him to answer her. He looked into her eyes and saw such uncertainty staring back at him. "I… I want you safe." He knew that wasn't the kind of answer she was looking for, but it was true. Above all, he wanted her to be okay, needed her to be safe.

While Gabriella could tell there was more on his mind, she turned his words over in her mind. "It… it does sound kind of terrifying," she admitted, going to back to scroll through her information again, despite the fact she already knew what it said. "Not that child birth doesn't sound terrifying too…." she added, a bit under her breath.

Child.

That image was back in his head again. The one where their sleeping baby laid in her arms as Troy looked on lovingly. And then Gabriella shifted and handed their baby off to him with a heart-warming smile. Troy gingerly took the small bundle and watched as it nuzzled its head against his chest, settling back into its slumber after being disturbed by the movement. Troy could practically feel the warmth from the little body pressing against his forearm and pec….

"I can't do it, Gabi." The words were out of his mouth before he even realized. She could have been talking in that moment and he wouldn't have known. He felt this tugging in his chest, a pulling that he couldn't ignore anymore.

His words hung in the air for a few moments before they seemed to sink in. Troy fought the butterflies in his stomach to look over to Gabi. She looked… shocked. He watched as the shock sunk in and morphed into something more somber. He had seen that look on her face before - in the moment when she shoved the sheet music back in his face before their winter musical call back, in the moment when she thought he truly didn't care about her or them performing together. He stared directly into disappointment.

Before Troy could speak again to try to explain, Gabriella's soft, almost timid voice murmured, "I'll… I'll call the clinic in the morning."

Troy felt like he had been hit full tilt by an invisible force twice his size that knocked all of the air out of his lungs and kept him from breathing in again. Gabriella started to stir, to sit up away from him and that seemed to push him to fight against the lack of air to speak. "Woah, Gabi. Wait…. Please."

The 'please' seemed to catch her attention and she paused. And while she may have been trying to keep her face turned away from him, he saw a tear roll down her cheek. "What, Troy? If you can't deal with this, then you can't. But I sure as hell can't go through with this alone. So, I'll… I'll deal with it." Her voice was cracking, breaking from the tears overtaking her.

Troy reached over and abruptly wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her over against him, pressing her face to his chest. He could feel her shoulders and chest heaving as she cried. "Gabi, please. Please breathe, baby." He rubbed his hand up and down her back, trying desperately to calm her. "That's not what I meant…. I meant I can't tell you to… to end it. If that's what you want, I will be with you to make sure you are okay, but I can't tell you to do it. I can't tell you to go through that. I can't tell you to… get rid of the… baby." The word hung in his throat. It felt like he choked just as he said it, making a bit of a strangled sound. It felt surreal to say that word out loud. It made it more… real. Troy felt her freeze against him and he took that to mean she was listening. "I know this isn't what you had planned and I'm sorry. And I don't know what this means or where we go from here, but I… I can't say to end it. I… I don't want you to…." Gabriella slowly pulled away from him and began to sit back up, looking up into his face to see the sincere concern looking back at her. She tried to form a coherent thought, but before she could say anything, Troy continued. "But I will be right there with you, no matter what you want to do. It just… this doesn't feel right."

Troy stayed silent, watching Gabriella turn it all over in her mind. "It… it doesn't, does it? It doesn't feel right. I've been so focused on the research that I really didn't stop to think about what it would be like to actually make this decision…." Troy watched her closely as she slowly closed her computer and curled her legs up underneath her, facing him. "Troy, I… I think I want to keep the baby."

Troy let out a relieved breath, one he had apparently been holding in with the tension in his body. He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. "Yeah? You do?"

Gabriella smiled back, the smile reaching her eyes - a sight that Troy hadn't seen in far too long - despite their redness and puffiness. She nodded at him. "I do."

Troy shifted towards her and took her face in his hands, pulling her into a strong kiss. He could feel the wet streaks from her tears under his palms as he held her head gently in place for his lips to move sweetly against hers, their noses brushing against each other as their position adjusted. The kiss wasn't meant to get heated - it was meant to show their love, their dedication to each other despite how hard this situation was and how much harder it was bound to get. Troy pulled back just a bit, disconnecting their lips but pressing his forehead against hers. He ran his thumbs across her cheeks, clearing the evidence of her tears. "I love you, Gabriella."

"I love you, too, Troy," Gabriella told him breathily, her smile still quite evident.

* * *

 ** _A/N: Thank you all for your support!_**

 ** _This chapter took some tough work. What I had written originally was much shorter and used information that was not based out of New Mexico, so I needed to do quite a bit of research to keep it as factual as possible. I hope I did this conversation justice. I wanted to be sure to keep them in character (which I hope I did… Gabriella is tougher for me than Troy is). I also didn't want the chapter to become political at all. That's not what this story or this chapter is about, so I hope I didn't lean too far one way or the other._**

 ** _I know the last few chapters have been a bit heavy The next chapter should lighten it up for a bit._**


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N: Warning: smut ahead! If that's not your thing, you'll have to skip down about half way (to the line break just before "As the endorphins..." You'll miss some cuteness and romance, but you shouldn't miss any story content if you skip ahead. Enjoy!_**

* * *

Senior Year: Graduating Childhood

Chapter Five

* * *

Gabriella leaned back in to Troy, capturing his lips with hers. While their last kiss was strong yet gentle, the strength behind this kiss was anything but. Gabriella wrapped her arm around Troy's neck and pulled his body closer, their lips pressing together more tightly as her tongue flicked lightly against his bottom lip. Out of pure reflex and pleasure, Troy's tongue reached out of his mouth for hers, flicking against the tip of her tongue, bringing a small moan soaring from Gabriella's throat. The sound added fuel for Troy as he thrust his fingers through her hair to pull her in with a grip along her jaw to the back of her neck. Their mouths moved in familiar ways, a comfortable rhythm having been established through months of exploration before this moment. Troy took a sharp intake of breath as Gabriella ran her tongue along the inside of his bottom lip, receiving just the reaction she wanted. He could feel the slight smirk appear on her lips as they moved against his.

Troy could feel his body starting to react to their activities, his jeans feeling tighter under the zipper. But with all that she was going through, he felt like this wasn't the time for such reactions and he started to pull away from her to cool down. But as he started to shift away, Gabriella moved herself closer. She kept their lips connected and shuffled onto her knees, grabbing onto his shoulders for support as she gained the power in their kiss. Troy moved his hands to a more comfortable position of holding her hips, the most innocent position they could have in this situation. Despite his attempts to remain a gentleman, it was made clear that Gabriella had other intentions as she swung one knee up over his hips and settled into a position on top of him.

The tightness in Troy's jeans was instantly worse. Gabriella's tongue was still teasing him and now her body was pressed against him. Just the heat and pressure from her body weight against his pelvis sent a wave through his body that he could not control. He had to stop her before he lost all control. He moved his hands up to cup her face again and gently moved her back a bit to break their contact. He watched as her chest heaved, working to catch her breath and she smiled down at him shyly from her position of power. That look about did him in, but he grasped hard onto the last bit of self-control in his body to speak to her. "Gabi… we can't."

She looked down at him and chuckled slightly. "Well… it's not like I can get more pregnant," she quipped breathlessly with a blush, her humor breaking the tension.

Troy allowed himself to break a smile, appreciating hearing her sass again. "Cute. Real cute."

"I know I am," she told him, the sweet lilt in her voice giving off the obvious kidding nature of her cockiness.

It had been too long since Troy had heard her giggle and joke with him like this. He could tell in that moment that she hadn't made the decision to keep the baby to make him happy - she truly was happy, too. With the pressure of the decision off her shoulders, she was returning to her normal self again. Troy let out a chuckle to match hers. "Come here, you," he beckoned with a sexual gruffness in his voice before wrapping his arms around her middle and rolling to the side so they could lay facing each other.

But once their eyes met, the energy faded to something far more romantic. Troy reached over and tucked a stray bang behind her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek. He saw a soft side-smile appear on her lips as they lie there. She reached up and brushed his longs bangs to one side, Troy turning his head to press a kiss to her palm.

"Do you realize how wonderful you are?" she asked, her voice gentle and loving, a touch of wonderment creeping in as she looked directly into his intense gaze.

"Well…" he retorted, cocking his head to the side a bit in his teasing.

She gave him a smack on his chest. "Seriously," she insisted, resorting to her sincere tone, "A lot of guys in your position would run like hell. Or… deny it's theirs. Or ask the girl to… to make it all go away. But here you are hoping I hadn't done just that. Here you are promising to be here through it all." Troy gave a shrug. "No, that's a big deal, Troy. And I love you."

It didn't seem odd to him to promise those things when he was promising them to Gabriella. And after their struggles over Troy's ability to keep promises last summer, he had made a resolution. 'Promise' was a big word to Gabriella. So if he said he promised, he would be there. "I love you, too, Gabi," he assured her, leaning back in to capture her lips once more. His hands ghosted over her, gentler with her than he ever was before (and that was saying something - Troy always treated Gabriella with the utmost care). More than ever, he reveled in the curve of her hip, the soft slope to her waist, the swell of her breasts. His hand ran up and down its path as his lips pressed sweet, gentle kisses to hers. Troy couldn't hide his smirk of satisfaction when she gave a slight shudder with a short moan into his mouth. When his hand reached her hip again, he pulled her more tightly to him, sure she could feel his body's evident reaction to her.

Gabriella clung tightly to Troy's toned shoulder blades, pulling him as tight to her as she could. She couldn't really describe it – Troy always cared for her, but this was… different. He was seeing her at her absolute worst and still he found some way to make her feel better, just by being there for her. The care and support he had shown her since her big reveal the night before had her craving him more than ever. She stretched her arm down, clawing to gather his shirt into her hand and work it up over his head. Troy shifted slightly, allowing her to complete her action before she threw the shirt somewhere on the floor on the far side of her bed. A wave of warmth rushed towards Gabriella's core at the sight of Troy shirtless, his jeans riding low on his hips from their movement on the bed, revealing a bit of the V that led beneath his waistband. She had always found him handsome, but even after winning the championships last year, he had kept up with his workouts, earning him muscles than read far more 'man' than when their romance first began. And Gabriella certainly wasn't complaining about the results.

As she explored the planes of muscle, Troy's hand had moved up to her chest, cupping one breast in his palm and gently pinching at its peak. His lips moved from hers, down her jaw, and back behind her ear, gently pecking their way to the sensitive skin of her neck. When he found the spot that earned him a vocal moan from Gabriella, he gently sucked on the skin, sending goosebumps down her arms. She fought to form words as his mouth continued its work and his hand teased at her chest. "T-Troy," she gasped. "Troy, you… you can't leave a mark," she protested reluctantly.

"Wear a scarf," he purred near her ear and flicking her earlobe with his tongue before working on finding his way back to her sweet spot.

Gabriella's gasp told him he had found his back successfully, but she groaned at him again. "Trooooy…."

"Ugh, fine," he groaned, frustrated only in the fact that he couldn't leave his mark for all to see. Instead, he moved his lips around to the front of her throat and down towards her chest. He swirled his tongue around the pert nipple he had teased, wetting the material of her pajama tank top adding friction against her sensitive skin. He stayed only momentary before kissing down the rest of her tank top until he reached the hem. He slowly pushed the tank top up, revealing her olive skin one tantalizing inch at a time, kissing each inch reverently. He smoothly lifted the shirt up over her head and tossed it to the floor uncaringly. He was far more focused on the fact that her bare chest stood right at eye level as she settled in to lie on her back.

His mouth went back to work, teasingly kissing around the swell of her breast and working his way slowly inwards. His tongue flicked out against her bare nipple and Gabriella bit her bottom lip in an attempt to suppress a moan from escaping. "God, you are so beautiful, Gabi," he have mumbled against her skin. Troy then closed his mouth around her peak, alternating between sucking at it and lapping it with his tongue. Gabriella couldn't contain her whimper as she fought to keep eye contact with him.

His teasing was driving her mad and she needed to take action. She moved her hands down past his abs to toy with the fastening of Troy's jeans. He swallowed hard, feeling her fingers brush against his straining arousal. She managed to undo his jeans and fought to pull them down with his boxers to just slightly past his hips, setting his erection free to the cooler air of the room. But she allowed no time for such freedom, her hand capturing his arousal in a firm grasp. She languidly pumped her hand up and down his length, effectively distracting him from her chest. He frantically toed off his shoes and socks before shimming the rest of the way out of his boxers and pants. He then looked up into her smirk. _Ah, so that's how we're going to play it, huh? Two can play at that game,_ he mused to himself before working against his body's reactions to take back control.

Troy's hand skimmed down her soft skin and pushed underneath the elastic band on her sweatpants. As his fingers brushed her curls, he heard Gabriella's breathing hitch slightly in anticipation, the cockiness melting from her features. With confidence at her reaction, he continued his path, his hand coming to rest cupping her mound, his fingers catching just the slightest feeling of the wetness that snuck out from between her folds. He then curled his middle finger, pressing it between her lips and bringing it up until it found the small bump of nerves. Her hips jumped as he made contact, and her hand seemed to forget that it had been busy elsewhere. Troy kept a gentle pace as his finger moved up and down over her clit, earning him a few whimpers from Gabriella. He changed his motion to a circle and her hips flexed up towards his hand with each revolution. Troy closed his eyes for a moment, trying to keep himself composed. Seeing her hips bucking immediately made his body remember how it felt the last time they were intimate, how their hips worked together to set a rhythm as their bodies met in passion. Troy couldn't control the few thrusts his hips made, his erection rubbing against her hip bone as he lay beside her.

Troy fought against the tight fit of the sweat pants and moved his hand lower, pressing one finger inside her. Her hips froze and Gabriella let out a bit of a strangled "ah" sound. _Fuck, she's so wet,_ Troy couldn't help but think to himself as his finger gave a few shallow pumps, fighting against the material of her pants. He could feel her pressing out with her internal muscles, desperately trying to pull him deeper inside of her, but his angle gave him very little ability to give her what she wanted. "I think these are in the way," he whispered to her, his free hand fighting to try and pull down the offending garment. Gabriella's eyes flicked open to meet his gaze. There was a slight amusement in his gaze from watching her reactions to his ministrations, and his eyes had turned a deeper blue in want of her. She gave a slightly frantic nod and reached down to help him rid her body of her remaining clothes.

There was a moment she lay bare on her bed of which Troy's eyes took advantage, scanning up her body slowly, savoring the image: her toned legs, his hand resting at her core, her smooth belly, the swell of her breasts, her sweet lips. But before he managed to make his way to meet her gaze, she had grabbed his face and pulled him in to an intense kiss. He let out a moan, unable to suppress it in his surprise. Her tongue probed desperately into his mouth as her fingers tangled into his hair. Troy shifted slightly, removing his hand from its explorations and planting it on the other side of her body, giving him a better angle to reciprocate her vigor. One of her hands made its way from his hair to wrap around his shoulder, trying desperately to pull his body on top of her. Troy chuckled slightly into her mouth and climbed over to settle his body between her legs, supporting himself on his forearms.

Troy pulled away from their kiss, finally having the chance to look into her deep chocolate eyes staring up at him with intensity. She had a slight smile curving at the side at her mouth that made Troy's heart beat even harder. He hovered over her, refusing to break the gaze they shared. It was full of love and passion and promise and caring and it wasn't a moment he was likely to forget any time soon. He felt the bed move slightly and out of his peripheral vision he saw she had cocked one knee up, giving him room to move closer to her center. As he did, the head of his manhood brushed the wet heat at the apex of her legs, and it took everything in him to set his hips back a bit and keep control. "You sure about this?" he asked, needing to be certain. Obviously they had had sex before, but this felt different. He needed to hear that she was going to be okay. Briefly he thought he might be more worried that he was going to hurt her now than during their first time together.

Gabriella reached up and ran a finger from his shoulder down his arms, the light touch sending a shiver through Troy. "Completely sure."

Troy gulped, his self-restraint slipping further from his grasp. "And you know I don't have a -"

"I know," she cut him off. "Little late for one, don't you think?" she quipped, both of them breathlessly chuckling slightly.

"Maybe. But you know you're my one and only, right? It's only you. I'm all yours," he assured her, their eye contact seemingly intensifying, if that were possible.

"And I'm yours, Troy," she told him, brushing his bangs aside, their eyes still locked.

It was in that moment that Troy released his grip on his restraint and moved his hips forward, the tip of his member meeting her dripping core. He reached down and slid a finger between her lips and in a slow circle around her clit once more, her hips jumping slightly in her over-stimulated state. He then guided himself to his target and slowly pressed his hips forward, still holding her gaze with his.

As his length slid steadily inside of her, Troy was shocked his body allowed him to keep such a slow pace. Feeling the soft, pillow-y texture of her muscles against each ridge, feeling himself become covered in her wetness - the sensations were overwhelming him. They had gladly used a condom every time they had been together before this; each time had been wonderful still. But this time Troy was concerned he might blackout from sensation overload. He pressed into her until their pelvises touched, Troy leaning over Gabriella and supporting himself with a hand on either side of her head. He was practically panting in his arousal, and he had to force himself to keep his eyes open. "You okay?" he asked, choking out each word.

But instead of words, Troy felt the muscles encasing him tighten. His head fell forward and his eyes snapped closed as a slight grunt escaped his lips. He then felt her muscles return to their previous state His head snapped up in shock to meet a cocky grin on his girlfriend's face. His jaw dropped slightly, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Evil," he joked, narrowing his eyes at her and receiving a smirk in return. "I take that as a 'yes,'" he told her. Troy made sure he saw her nod before he pulled his hips back and rocked them forward. He repeated his motions, watching as her eyes drifted closed and the side of her bottom lip caught in her teeth. Troy let out a breath of contentment at seeing her drift into pleasure.

He pushed himself to kneel upright, giving him more leverage. His thrusts became longer, pulling out of her a bit further before pressing their bodies to meet again. He rested one hand on her propped knee, the extra skin contact sending more arousal through Gabriella despite the touch's innocence. With each stroke Troy's hips made, he watched her chest bounce a bit from the movement, smirking at the sight. Gabriella let out a moan and Troy's head fell backwards, reveling in the feelings and sounds of their love-making.

Troy slowly increased his pace, pulling her other knee up beside his hip. Gabriella let out a sharp "ah" sound as his angle shifted slightly, hitting deeper within her. Troy slid his hands down from her knees and grabbed hold of her upper thighs, taking hold to pull her in tighter against him with each thrust. Gabriella could practically feel her clitoris pulsing with desire as Troy brought her closer and closer to a peak. A soft, repetitive moaning sound came from Gabriella's throat that spurred Troy on, setting his pace even quicker and filling the room with the irresistible sound of his skin meeting her wetness.

Troy fought to open his eyes and take in the view before him: Gabriella, laid bare before him, lost in pleasure he was bringing to her. Her soft, tan legs clenched tighter around his hips as her feet wrapped around behind him, desperate to pull him in even a fraction closer to her. Her abs tightened as they worked to keep up their rhythm. Her breasts bounded with abandon at their heightened pace. But the best part was the look on her face – her breathlessness, her head thrown back into the pillow with her hair splayed out around it, her quivering bottom lip as her jaw dropped open in a silent exclamation of pleasure. It was that look that told him that she was close to release and he couldn't help but smirk knowing it was because of him. He slid his hand up past her hip and to her chest, rolling a pert nipple between his thumb and forefinger. "Oh, Troy," she moaned aloud, licking her lips that had dried from panting for breath.

Her muscles around him quivered with eminent release. "Fuck… Yes, Gabi. That's it," he coaxed. He quickly ghosted his hand down her body to swirl the pad of his pointer finger around the engorged bundle of nerves that lay just above where he continued to connect their bodies. Practically as soon as he made contact, he watched as Gabriella's whole body tensed, her jaw open wide in a soundless scream, her toes curling in towards the small of his back. Her internal muscles clenched tighter than ever and Troy's eyes snapped shut, his vision unable to take the overstimulation. His breath fell to a frantic panting as his thrusts became erratic, pressing into her tightness. Before her muscles had managed to relax, Troy felt himself lose control and each thrust was accompanied by a deep-throated grunt as he emptied himself into her in spurts.

Troy's exhausted body fell forward towards Gabriella's now relaxed form. He caught himself on shaky arms, making sure not to put his body weight on top of her as he met her with a sloppy kiss of satisfaction. Gently he rolled to her side, knowing that, despite his toned muscles from basketball workouts, his body could take no more exertion. As he settled in with his head on the pillow next to her, he felt himself slip from where their bodies had connected, the cool air of the room shocking his sensitive skin. Gabriella curled up with her head on his sweating, heaving bare chest, listening to his racing heartbeat slowly return to normal. Her finger drew small circles under his pec absentmindedly in her contentment as his arm wrapped around her and his thumb rubbed gently back and forth against the skin of her upper arm. They lay in a comfortable silence regaining their breath, both of them feeling relaxed for the first time in the last twenty four hectic hours they had endured.

* * *

As the endorphins wore off and their bodies relaxed in contentment, Troy fell back into his thoughts, all of the questions about their futures slowly popping back into his memory. Troy was terrified to ruin this moment, but the longer they lay there in silence, the more questions his brain concocted that nagged at him. He swallowed hard and took a breath before pushing himself to finally form words. "So… do we tell your mom now?"

He felt Gabriella stir in his arms and roll more to her side so she could look up at him. Her eyes looked panicked. "What?"

Troy felt a lurch in his gut at the fright on her face. He hadn't meant to cause that. "I just… I mean, a baby isn't really something we can hide…. The crying tends to give them away." He was trying to relax her with humor, but the look he got in return told him she was not amused.

"No, we are not telling my mom! Do you remember her freak out from yesterday? Can you imagine what it'll be like when she has proof we've been sleeping together? Let alone telling her about… this." Her eyes dropped down towards her stomach and away from Troy.

Troy watched her change of focus with concern. As she ran her hand across her stomach, his eyes went wide. "Gabi, I didn't hurt you, did I? Or hurt… it?" He started to shift up to take her into his arms. "Shit, I'm so sorry. I didn't even think –"

"I'm fine, Troy," Gabriella assured him, despite a slightly annoyed tone. "W-we're fine…. I think," she corrected, more softly, struggling with the need for a new pronoun. "I just… I can't disappoint my mom like this. I- I can't tell her, Troy."

Troy still felt uneasy and slightly guilty that he had brushed aside the possibility of hurting… it… in their activities. But he tabled that concern for the moment because he had to admit that she was right. It wasn't going to be pretty to tell her mom, but he wasn't sure what other options they had. He then remembered her texts from that morning, unsure how Gabriella planned to keep this from her mother. "I thought you said she knew something was going on and that's why you stayed home today? How are we going to hide it if she already knows?"

Gabriella let out a sigh. "Well, she doesn't actually know, but she did catch me puking this morning…."

Troy shifted to sit up, tuning in more intently. "You were sick this morning? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you. I'm fine. But when I wasn't down for breakfast, my mom came up and heard me through the bathroom door. She put me right back to bed, despite me protesting."

"Good," Troy insisted. "You need to take care of yourself."

"Troy, I'm fine! I would have been at school today had she not caught me mid-gag."

Troy suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at her. It's a good thing he loved her because she sure could be stubborn. "So your mom just thinks you have the flu or something?"

"I guess… though she did notice I didn't have a fever. Here's hoping I can keep it together around her enough that she writes it off. Her schedule change should help with that - she has to start going in earlier in the mornings."

"So you're just… going to hope you can keep this a secret from her?"

Gabriella fidgeted with the corner of her sheet as the room sobered a bit. "I'm not sure what else to do right now. Can you imagine telling your parents?"

Troy's brain immediately played that image through his mind. He saw his mom and dad sitting in their usual spots in the living room as Troy shifted uncomfortably, standing in the middle of the room. He could practically feel himself struggle for the right words. _Do I say she's pregnant? Or having a baby? Which one will make them scream less?_ Then he could almost feel the silence bear down on him as his parents stared at him in disbelief before his father finally composed himself enough to start the tirade - a tirade of how Troy was throwing away his future, about how he should have known better, about how he had been warned to stay away from Gabriella….

"No thank you," Troy told Gabriella, understanding how terrifying that conversation would be. They sat in silence for a moment, both of their minds turning. No matter how Troy pictured the next few months, he knew that they couldn't hide it forever. "But how are we… I mean, eventually won't it be obvious?"

Gabriella hung her head. "Yeah. But we should have some time before then. For now, I think it should be just us."

Suddenly, Troy felt a wave of guilt wash over him. If she wanted it to be just the two of them, he had definitely already ruined that. "You don't want to tell anyone at all?" he probed, hoping to get a clearer answer.

"Well, I'll have to tell Taylor since she already knows some of what's going on, but no. I don't think we should tell anyone else. The more people that know, the more likely it will get around the school… maybe even back to your dad." Gabriella watched Troy shift a bit uncomfortably and noticed he was no longer looking in her direction. "Troy? What's wrong?"

Troy felt his stomach turn as he forced himself to speak. "I…I may have told someone. I'm so sorry Gabriella…."

Gabriella froze for a moment. "Who… who did you tell?"

Troy snuck a look over to Gabi to watch her reaction. "Chad?" Gabriella's posture relaxed, but Troy didn't seem to notice. "I'm sorry, Gabi! I… I knew that Taylor knew and Chad was so pissed that I left the team out to dry at practice and I just… I've known him forever, Gabi. He's been there through everything and I -"

Gabriella reached over and grabbed his hand in hers, effectively cutting off his rant. Troy's gaze shot down to watch her link her fingers with his. "It's okay, Troy. Honestly, I probably should have known that you would tell Chad at some point."

"You-you aren't mad?" Troy asked gently with more than a slight tone of surprise in his voice.

"No, I'm not mad. I shouldn't have even thought about asking you to keep it a secret from him. But the rest of the team doesn't have to know, right?"

"No way! God, can you imagine Jason with a secret? He'd be the one to hear someone mention 'Bolton's kid' and ask if they meant me or the baby in front of everyone on the court." Gabriella couldn't help but giggle, hanging her head in sympathy for poor Jason's struggles with comprehension. Troy leaned over and lifted her chin to give her a quick peck on the lips.

When they broke apart again, Troy could still see a bit of worry in her eyes before she asked, "But Chad won't tell anyone, right?"

Troy ran his thumb reassuringly back and forth across her cheek as he cradled her jaw. "Nah. I swore him to secrecy," he reassured her, leaning in for another kiss.

Gabriella put her hand to his chest and gave him a gentle nudge backwards, breaking their kiss again. "Not even, like, in the locker room or anything?"

Troy let out a small chuckle. Not that he would laugh at her nerves, but the way she could think up every possible situation to cover all their bases was pretty cute. "Not if he doesn't want Taylor to know about the French foreign exchange student from sophomore year." Troy watched as Gabriella's eyes grew wide, trying to decipher what secrets her boyfriend held. He couldn't help but chuckle again. "Besides, this would be pretty far outside typical locker room conversation," he explained, a mischievous tone taking over his voice and his hand slipping under the sheet.

Gabriella noticed the shift to his more playful tone. "Oh? And what exactly do you boys talk about in that secret lair of yours?" she teased, distracting Troy from the path his hand was on as it followed the bare curve of her hip.

"Secret lair? Don't only super villains have secret lairs?" he asked, mock offended at the insinuation.

"Superheroes, too!" she assured him with a giggle.

"Uh huh… well see, basketball superheroes that we are, we tend to talk less about foiling evil plots and more about our damsels in distress…." he explained as his lips made a path from her collarbone up to behind her ear.

"Oh really?" she asked, trying to fight to keep her breath from hitching as his tongue drew circles on her sensitive skin. "What about them?"

Troy's hand gently skimmed across her skin and around the outer swell of her breast. "Oh, you see, we Wildcat-ians not only share the super-human physical abilities required to defeat the Evil Knights of the West, but we also have a certain suaveness that allows us to seduce our damsels into bed at the end of a long day of crime-fighting." His tone would shift between a fake superhero voice over and a devilishly seductive tone that kept Gabriella in a heightened state, unsure whether she should giggle or shiver.

"Is that so?"

"Mmhm," he hummed against the shell of her ear. "And as such, there tends to be discussion of some heroes' various… conquests…rewards for our continued vigilance in defending the village of East High," he half-explained, half-seduced as his fingers inched their way in towards her nipple, gently teasing at it, causing her eyes to drift closed. "Some of the superheroes simply dream of their damsels, of getting the chance to feel their soft curves up close," he whispered, palming the curve of her breast. "I've also heard tales of damsels so thankful they fall to their knees," he explained coyly with a slight smirk at the goosebumps that appeared on her arm. "But nothing compares to the times when Captain Playmaker manages to secret away his very own damsel," he cooed in an enticing whisper right next to her ear, his hot breath both tickling and invigorating. Troy began kissing his way from her ear and across her cheek, making his way towards her lips. But just before he could make contact, he heard his phone's notification sound ring out through the room.

Troy let out a groan at the interruption and wilted, his forehead leaning forward against hers. Her eyes peeked open, pulled out of the sexual haze he had lured her into. "Sorry. Just a sec. I'll put it on silent," he apologized, hoping a slight interruption now would leave them undisturbed for quite some time. He reluctantly climbed off the bed to search his jeans' pocket for his cell phone.

But when he pulled up the screen, his stomach dropped. "Shit," he cursed, unlocking the screen to read the full message from his father: **TROY ALEXANDER BOLTON, YOU GET YOUR ASS HOME RIGHT NOW!** "Fuck," Troy swore again, starting to pull his clothes back onto his body.

Gabriella sat up in her bed, pulling the sheet up to cover her chest. "What's wrong?" she asked, her nerves suddenly on edge.

Troy whipped around, shirtless with his fly still unzipped, suddenly remembering she was even in the room. Troy crawled on his hands and knees from the foot of the bed and up over her body to give her a kiss. Troy couldn't help but groan as he took in the smell of sex mixed with her shampoo and the scent that was uniquely Gabriella. He hated to leave her, but he really didn't have a choice. "I'm really sorry, babe, but I have to go," he apologized from above her before he rolled to his side and bounced back up to his feet to finish redressing.

Gabriella scooted to the other side of the bed, closer to where he was getting dressed. "Troy." She demanded an explanation with her tone as she watched Troy fidget to get his shoes back on his feet.

"My dad is pissed… again," he explained with a sigh, threading his arms through his shirt and throwing it over his head.

"I'm sorry…." she whispered defeated, hanging her head. She felt so guilty for causing him so much trouble.

Troy paused as he looked over at her. "Hey," he cooed to her, kneeling down beside the bed. "It's not your fault. I'll deal with my dad." She had at least looked up at him, but he could still see she was beating herself up over it. "You just lay here and relax and take care of our baby," he told her with a loving look, their eyes meeting. Troy fought to keep the butterflies at bay from his use of the word 'baby,' failing in his attempts but hoping he hid it well. He was relieved to see the smile that appeared on her face. He gave her another quick kiss before heading towards the balcony, but she called out to him again.

"Troy?" He turned back and saw a slight uneasiness about her. "Do guys talk about me like that? In the… secret lair?"

Troy's anxiousness about his father melted away for a moment as his protectiveness took over. "No way in hell." Troy watched her closely and he could still see she was slightly unsettled. He let out a small sigh, hating to admit to a recent incident he had hidden from her. "If they try, I shut it down. One freshman made the mistake of mentioning your ass and he walked out of practice with a black eye. I told my dad he must have missed a pass during drills." Troy's tone mocked fake cluelessness about the injury.

"Troy!" she admonished, but Troy ignored it. He wasn't sorry that he put that punk in his place. Plus, if Gabriella was back to scolding him, that meant she had at least relaxed a bit.

"I'll text you later. Watch for the secret code," he teased in an overly dramatic tone, earning him a giggle before he turned to climb down the tree to face his father's wrath.

* * *

When he got home, he rushed in the house, knowing that the longer he was out, the worse this was likely to be. He hurried in the back door and into the kitchen, looking around for either of his parents. He found his father sitting at the table, his hands folded and lips pursed. Troy stopped dead in his tracks and Jack looked up to his son. "Where were you?" Jack asked, his tone cold.

"I was with friends. It's the last school day we have off of practice until the big game." He chose his explanation carefully, trying to be as truthful as he could be.

"Your friends were in school, Troy."

 _Oh, shit,_ Troy thought to himself with sudden realization. _Dad gets the attendance reports as coach…._ Troy was beginning to put the pieces together and this wasn't looking good.

"Or I should say, all of your friends were in school except one. I see that Ms. Montez took the day off today. At least you had the decency to attend part of the day at school before running off…." Jack's jaw clenched as he mentioned Gabriella.

But Troy's defenses went up as soon as his dad mentioned her. His haunches were raised; he needed to protect her. "Gabriella is really sick! Remember? I helped her home yesterday? She's resting." He was so frustrated with his father that he couldn't stop to think of a better retort.

"So then where the hell were you, Troy?! What the hell are you skipping class for? And this close to the championships?! Do you want to get pulled from the game?!"

Troy's gut sank, the power he had felt in defending Gabriella now drained. "You… You wouldn't…." He was in shock that his father would even threaten such a thing.

"I may not have a choice, Troy! If the principal sees an unexcused absence, you're benched!" Jack could see that this knowledge hit his son hard. Troy couldn't even look his father in the eye. Jack backed off his intensity as he asked again, "So where were you?"

Troy dragged his eyes up from the floor, trying to look at his father, trying to come up with an answer. "I just… I needed a break." That, at least, wasn't a lie. Troy felt he could use a break. Basketball and school and college prep were wearing on everyone, but add in what was happening with Gabriella…. Troy just wished he could hit the pause button for a bit.

"A break?" Jack asked, slightly incredulous. "Troy, you can't just 'take a break' whenever you feel like it!"

"I know!' Troy snapped.

Jack let out a frustrated sigh. "If you need a break so bad, you'll have one this weekend." Troy looked up in confusion but saw that his father's face hadn't softened. He was still pissed. "Hand over your phone."

"What?!" Troy looked at his father as if he had just grown a second head. "I need my phone!"

"You'll get it back after you 'take a break' this weekend," Jack explained, his jaw still set in determination.

Troy was frantically thinking through have awful this could be - what if Gabriella needed him? What if she was sick again? And what about Chad and Taylor? They didn't know what was going on…. "Dad, come on…." Troy practically begged his father to reconsider.

"Now, Bolton," Jack demanded, his hand outstretched for the device.

Troy reached in his pocket and subtly made sure to turn the phone off. At the very least, he wasn't going to let his dad see any texts that might pop up on the screen for the duration of his punishment. He gave one last pleading look at his father that was met with raised eyebrows and a set jaw. With a frustrated, angry groan, Troy threw his phone towards his father, the device sliding across the table. Before his dad could try to talk to him again, Troy stormed out of the kitchen and up to his room.

* * *

 ** _A/N: Hello everyone! I hope this chapter didn't feel too long - I went a little crazy on the smut because, well, they deserve it. Plus I really wanted to get through Troy's conversation with his dad before the end of the chapter. With this chapter, I really wanted to give representation of Troy and Gabriella's characters as we know them (and I hope that came across). With all the stress of the last few chapters, I was worried the stress was pushing them too far out of character. So, I hope that this bit of happiness and playfulness reset the balance. I also hope that the transition to the tone of this chapter made sense. They needed some happiness, but I hope it wasn't a shocking transition._**

 ** _Thanks for sticking with me!_**


	6. Chapter 6

Senior Year: Graduating Childhood

Chapter Six

* * *

That weekend was the longest two days Troy had ever experienced.

Mid-morning on Saturday, after repeatedly reaching for his phone to check on Gabriella to find it not there, he grabbed his keys to drive to her house instead. But before he made it to the door, his father informed him that he needed to be resting on his 'break' and put out his hand for Troy's keys. Biting his tongue to avoid making it worse, Troy dropped the keys into Jack's outstretched hand and stomped back upstairs.

On Sunday, Troy suited up for a run, knowing his father couldn't deny him the ability to work out and keep up his stamina. What Troy didn't anticipate was his father joining him on the run, keeping him from making any detours toward Gabriella or Chad's houses. It became evident to Troy that 'break' meant 'grounded' without his father saying so.

Monday morning finally came and Troy was up earlier than he ever was, rushing down to the kitchen to retrieve his cell phone from his mother, whom he knew would already be up making breakfast. Still in his boxers and plain white T-shirt, he bounded into the kitchen and hopped up onto the countertop. "It's officially no longer the weekend," Troy announced. "Can I please have my phone back now?" he asked with his best puppy-dog eyes and wide grin.

His mother finished pulling the muffin tin she was attending to out of the oven before turning to him, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. "I don't have it. You're going to have to wait for your father to get up."

Troy groaned and rolled his eyes as he slid down off of the counter. "Come on, Mom. You've got to know where it is. I did my time."

It was then that Jack walked into the room, dressed for the day. The kitchen went silent as Troy glared expectantly at his father, waiting for his phone to be returned to him. Jack seemed to ignore the tension as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He placed one of the fresh muffins on a small plate before heading to the table where he grabbed the sports section and began reading.

Troy looked at his mother who put her hands up in the air to surrender having anything to do with the situation. Troy whipped his head back towards his father who seemed to not notice Troy was even in the room. "Uh… Dad?" Troy started, hoping pointing out his presence would be enough. Jack slowly set his coffee cup down and laid the sprawling newspaper on the table next to it before looking over to his son. Troy saw his jaw was still clenched, a sure sign of Troy still being in trouble. Troy lost a bit of his sass and courage before he continued. "The weekend's over. Can I have my phone back now?"

"That depends," Jack answered, turning back towards the paper and taking another sip of coffee. "Have you had enough of a 'break' that you can manage to stay at school?"

Troy sighed heavily as he flopped back onto one of the bar stools near the counter. His leg bobbed in agitation as he tightly answered, "Yes."

"Good," Jack said simply, not looking back up at his son as he reached in his pocket and set Troy's phone on the table, his truck keys on top of it. Troy got up and went to take it back, but as he reached for it, Jack's hand landed on top of the keys and screen. "And about Gabriella -" Jack started, but Troy jumped to cut him off.

"Not this again. Dad, I'm not going to break up with Gabriella!"

It was clear that Jack was trying to keep his cool as he calmly looked up at his son fully for the first time that morning. "Just… keep the big picture in mind, okay? She's going to be going to school over a thousand miles from you. Be sure you stay focused on your future." And with that, Jack removed his hand and went back to his paper.

Troy collected his phone and keys hurriedly. He powered on the phone as he ran back up the stairs to his room, dropping his keys on his bedside table.

He had a couple of messages from teammates about a possible weekend workout that Troy promptly ignored. A message from Chad came through asking about a game of one-on-one and another asking if he was okay since he hadn't responded. And then he checked the messages under Gabriella's name.

 **You there, Wildcat?** from Friday night.

 **Want to come over to study today?** from Saturday morning.

 **Troy?** from Saturday night.

 **Did I do something wrong?** from Sunday afternoon.

"Shit," Troy cursed under his breath, quickly finding her saved number in his phone and starting a call.

Troy felt a wave of relief when he heard her answer, "Hello?" It sounded small and meek, but at least she had picked up.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked in a hushed, gentle voice.

"Um…yeah. Yeah I'm fine. I couldn't reach you this weekend…."

"I know. I'm sorry. My dad took my phone because of me leaving school on Friday…. I'm so sorry. Are you sure you're okay?"

There was a pause that Troy had a trouble deciphering before her meek voice spoke again. "Yeah…. I just… I thought maybe you had… changed your mind about… what we talked about."

Troy's eyes went wide. "What? No! No, no. Of course not," he assured her, but was met with silence. "Gabi? Did you…?"

"No, I just… I was nervous when I didn't hear from you."

"I'm sorry. I promise you, I'm not going anywhere and I'm not changing my mind." He spoke with confidence, hoping she could tell his sincerity, even over the phone.

There was a slight pause before she responded, "Thanks, Troy."

With a slight sigh of relief, Troy sat on his bed, keeping the phone pressed to his ear. "So you're okay? How was your mom this weekend?"

"I'm okay. My mom worked most of the weekend, so it was fine."

Troy realized that this meant she was on her own the whole weekend and he felt a pang of guilt in his gut, despite knowing that he had done just about everything he could to be able to see her. "Well, that's… good." Troy tried to seem optimistic for her. At least she hadn't had to face keeping their secret from her mother. "So, I had a lot of time to think this weekend," he transitioned, sensing tension in Gabriella's reaction to talking about her mother. Had she been in the room with him, she would have seen the massive eye roll that accompanied that statement. "I was thinking maybe we should go ahead and tell Taylor and Chad what's going on. If we don't, we both know they are going to drive us crazy for information until we do."

He heard Gabriella sigh on the other side of the phone. "Yeah, I was already avoiding Taylor's texts this weekend. I can only say, "Sorry, I was in the shower," so many times before she figures out something's up."

Troy fought the image of Gabriella in the shower out of his head to focus on the conversation. "I could have Chad meet us before school if you want…."

"That… might be best," she answered, but he could hear that she was tentative.

"I can have him bring Taylor, too. That way we can do it all at once." Troy was trying so hard to be helpful; Gabriella knew that. But that didn't lessen the butterflies in her stomach.

"O-okay."

"Hey, it'll be okay."

"I'm just not sure how Taylor is going to take the news," she explained.

"They're our friends, Gabriella. It'll be okay. And I'll be right there with you." Luckily, he could practically picture the small smile that his reassurance caused.

"Thanks, Troy. I love you."

Now Troy was the one smiling. "I love you, too. I'll come by and pick you up, okay? I'll be there soon."

Once their call ended, he sent a couple of texts to Chad explaining his weekend 'break' and then asking him to bring Taylor to the roof of the school as soon as he could. Despite a quip about not wanting to be at school any earlier than necessary, Chad agreed. Troy then hurriedly readied himself for school, grabbed his basketball bag, and headed out of the house, still too angry to say a word to his father on his way out.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Troy and Gabriella sat on the bench on the school's rooftop, waiting for their best friends to arrive. Gabriella picked at a catch in her skirt out of nerves. Troy reached over and stilled her hand by covering it with his and threaded his fingers with hers. "Hey," he told her gently. "It's going to be fine. They already know. We're just… giving them an update," he said nonchalantly despite knowing it wasn't going to be that easy.

"I know they know Troy. But… I don't think Taylor -"

"Hoops?" Chad called out, his voice cutting off Gabriella as his wild puff of hair appeared over the wall surrounding the staircase.

"Over here," Troy called back, patting Gabriella on the knee as he stood to make their position more visible to their friends. Chad rounded the corner towards the couple, Troy greeting him with a hand clasp as Taylor looked towards Gabriella suspiciously.

"Sorry your old man lost it on you this weekend. What set him off?" Chad asked, stepping back to lean over the railing around the stairway. Taylor seemed to ignore him, watching Gabriella who stayed seated on the bench, hunched over with her arms wrapped around her middle.

"Oh, I - I left school early on Friday to check on Gabriella."

"Everything okay, man?" as he watched Troy make his way back to the bench beside Gabriella.

"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. Actually, we uh…" Troy looked over at Gabriella to be sure she was ready. She was staring at the ground. He grabbed a tight hold on her hand before continuing. "We just wanted to tell you guys that we're going to have a baby. We're… we're keeping the baby."

Chad stood from his relaxed position against the railing, his wide eyes meeting his best friend's. Troy met the gaze with sureness and confidence, despite a few pesky butterflies that remained fluttering in his stomach. Chad's slight shock fell into a steady nod before he managed a smile. "Good for you, man," he offered sincerely. Then there was a moment of sudden realization, "I'm going to be an uncle," he said in slight awe. Troy chuckled before getting to his feet and clasping his hand with Chad's, pulling him into a bro hug. With much back slapping, the boys celebrated the decision, telling Troy they had Chad's support moving forward.

But then Troy noticed the silence from the girls behind him. He snapped his head around, distracting himself from the celebrations with Chad. Chad also calmed, trying to tune into the suddenly palpable tension in the air. Taylor stood staring at Gabriella, her jaw clenched. Gabriella still stared at the ground. "What's going on," Troy asked, his protective haunches raising with the tension.

"You're kidding, right?" Taylor asked, her arms folded across her chest.

"Excuse me?" Troy wasn't particularly pleased with Taylor's response, and her tone told him she wasn't as excited for him and Gabriella as Chad.

But then Taylor rounded around towards him. Troy was shocked to see the anger staring back at him. "What did you do?" she seethed. Chad's eyes went wide as he stood in the background, unsure how to help or even approach Taylor in this moment.

"What do you mean, 'what did I do'?" Troy responded, not understanding her train of thought in the slightest.

"Why are you making her do this?! Don't you understand? This will ruin everything she's worked so hard for!" Troy started to open his mouth to respond, but Taylor's rant continued. "What, did you lay on the charm, whisper sweet-nothings, and make promises you know you can't keep?! I gave her everything she needed to fix this, to get her life back on track and you just swoop in and -"

"Stop it!" Troy, Chad, and Taylor all whipped around in surprise towards Gabriella who had stood from her seat.

Taylor softened, crossing toward her friend. "Gabriella, sweetie, you can't honestly believe that -"

"Troy isn't 'making' me do anything! He asked me what _I_ wanted. He was the _only_ one to ask me what I wanted," she said pointedly at Taylor. "We decided this together. And we wanted to tell you both because you are our best friends. But if you can't find it within yourself to support us, then maybe you should just… go."

Everyone stood dumbfounded, staring at Gabriella who had fought through her tears to finish telling off Taylor. Taylor fumbled for a moment, uncharacteristically struggling to find the right words to say. "Gabriella, I didn't mean -" She stumbled over her words. "I was only trying to help," she explained weakly, breaking a bit of Gabriella's resolve.

"I know that," Gabriella acknowledged more gently. "And don't you think I might still need some help to keep the baby?"

Taylor struggled to explain herself, a pleading tone slipping into her voice. "Gabriella, what about Stanford? What about everything you've worked for?"

"I'm not giving any of that up…" Gabriella protested, but her argument was lacking strength.

"What, are you going to park the stroller outside the lecture hall?!"

"Taylor!" Chad snapped, knowing Taylor was crossing a line. He saw Troy's fist clench at his side.

"What, Chad?" Taylor asked, her eyes never leaving Gabriella. "I'm just trying to figure out the plan here."

Gabriella pushed herself to dig deep for strength, fighting away the sting of her best friend's words. "We know it's going to be hard, but we're going to figure it out."

"How, Gabriella? How are you going to -"

"I'm not stupid, Taylor!" Gabriella screamed at her best friend, silencing everyone on the roof who looked on in shock. "I know it's not going to be easy! I know there's a lot to figure out! And I'm terrified, okay? Is that what you want to hear? I'm scared out of my mind! But it didn't feel right, Taylor. I couldn't do it. I love Troy." Gabriella ran one palm possessively over her belly. "And I'll love this baby."

Taylor looked between a still pissed off Troy and her best friend who now had tears streaking down her face. Gabriella's speech had hit Taylor hard. Gabriella was right - she wasn't stupid, despite the circumstances. Taylor took in the look on Gabriella's face and saw a strength that she wasn't used to seeing in her best friend. Gabriella looked strong and sure of her words, despite the tears running down her face. Taylor's shoulders slackened and let out a sigh of defeat. "Think you can still be the next Frida Kahlo, even with a baby?" Her tone had lightened a bit and she looked tentatively at Gabriella, hoping she saw her question for the flag of truce that it was. Troy and Chad looked at each other more than slightly confused.

Gabriella gave a small snort of laughter, remembering clearly the PowerPoint presentation Taylor had shown her last year. "I think I'm more of a future Oprah Winfrey, don't you think?"

Taylor finally was able to crack a smile and quickly crossed to take Gabriella into a tight hug. Though slightly mumbled by the embrace, Gabriella told her, "I don't know what the baby would do without its Auntie Taylor."

Taylor couldn't help but smile as she patted Gabriella's back before pulling away from their hug. She then quickly rounded on Troy who looked on with a mix of confusion at their conversation and surprise at her intensity directed towards him again. "Don't you dare hurt my best friend, Bolton," she threatened with her eyebrows raised, her finger pointing dangerously, Gabriella slightly giggling behind her.

Troy's body relaxed slightly as his gaze shifted to Gabriella. He spoke definitively, but not to Taylor. He kept his eyes locked on Gabriella. "I won't," he promised, watching as Gabriella blushed slightly. Troy then went over and gave Gabriella kiss on the top of her head, missing the small, good-natured eye roll from Taylor. "But why are you supposed to be like Frida Kahlo?" The girls both giggled at him.

"Yeah, what about Frido Lay?" Chad chimed in, earning him a smack from Taylor.

"Frida _Kahlo_ is an inspirational Mexican artist famous for her self-portraits, Chad," Taylor explained, though slightly off-put by Chad's apparent lack of culture.

"But Gabriella doesn't paint…."

"I think you've been hanging around Jason too much lately," Taylor quipped, earning a good laugh from Troy and Gabriella and a bit of a glare from Chad. Taylor then softened and crossed to him, taking his hands in hers and giving him a kiss. Troy couldn't help but smile at his best friend. Chad needed someone who could keep him in check and Taylor had that ability - in spades.

When the laughter and good natured ribbing had died down, Chad had slung his arm around Taylor's shoulders and Troy had gotten Gabriella to sit back down on the bench with him, their hands intertwined. It was then that Taylor turned her attention back to Gabriella. "So, how is your mom taking all of this?"

The couple across from her stiffened and Gabriella's eyes dropped. "Um, we… haven't exactly told her yet…." Gabriella admitted.

"What?"

Troy gave Gabriella's hand a squeeze, taking over the explanation. "We're holding off on telling parents for right now."

"But-" Taylor tried to protest.

"Tay, let them be," Chad cut in.

"I just think-" Taylor tried to continue, this time interrupted by Gabriella.

"I can't, Taylor. She'll find out eventually, but this is all just… so much…" Troy moved his arm around her shoulders and let her curl into the side of his body for comfort.

"Okay." Taylor gave a small nod of understanding. "But you really should call and get an appointment at the clinic."

Troy looked at Taylor incredulously. "Taylor, we just told you we're keeping the baby." Troy had started to shift to sit more upright, getting ready for what seemed to be an impending fight.

But Taylor remained calm, stepping away from Chad and towards Gabriella. She spoke in a stage whisper: hushed enough to give the illusion of an aside to Gabriella while being clearly loud enough for Troy to overhear. "Lunkhead Basketball Man through and through…. Gabriella, are you sure he can handle this whole baby thing? He doesn't even know what a clinic does."

Gabriella could sense Taylor's teasing, but Troy was still up at arms. "I know that you wanted to her to go there to get rid of the baby!" he snapped, hating that the thought reentered his mind.

Taylor rolled her eyes. "But that's not all they do, Troy. They do prenatal care, too. You know - ultrasounds, blood tests…."

Troy suddenly felt extremely foolish. "Oh… um… right," he scrambled. Gabriella gave a small chuckle to see him caught off guard - he was usually so smooth and confident. It wasn't often someone could catch him otherwise. She rubbed her hand reassuringly up and down his arm. Troy was looking over at Chad for help. His best friend furrowed his brow with a slight shrug of his shoulders, communicating he knew nothing to add to the conversation and he would rather stay out of it.

"But Tay, I don't have any money," Gabriella protested, unsure what to do.

"It's a free clinic. That should keep you from having to show your mom's insurance card of anything, too," Taylor explained.

"How do you know all of this?" Chad challenged in a suspicious tone.

Taylor rolled her eyes again. "The internet is a wonderful invention. Check it out sometime," she retorted before turning back to Gabriella who was giggling at her friend's quip. "Really, you should call and get in to see a doctor."

"Already?" Troy asked, surprised that everything was moving so quickly.

"Can't hurt. Just to make sure everything is okay."

Troy went slightly pale at the idea that something could be not okay. "Right," he consented.

It was then that the first bell rang.

"I'll look up the number for the clinic while I'm in the library," Taylor offered, standing and pulling up the handle on her rolling bookbag. "Do you want to meet up here during free period to make the appointment?"

"Um… sure," Gabriella agreed tentatively, slightly overwhelmed.

"We've got free period workout," Chad chimed in, saddling his basketball under his arm.

"We could do lunch," Troy offered.

"Troy, really, it's okay. It's just a phone call," Gabriella protested.

"Are you sure? I told you I'd be here for you," Troy told her, giving her hand a squeeze.

"You're sweet, Wildcat, but it'll be fine," Gabriella insisted.

"I'll see you during free period, Gabriella," Taylor confirmed before she hurried off toward class. Chad followed behind after receiving a head nod from Troy, telling him to go ahead.

Troy lingered behind, watching Gabriella as she gathered her bag onto her shoulder. He could see she looked uneasy. "Hey," he cooed sweetly to her, swinging his arm around her shoulder. "What's the matter? That wasn't _so_ bad, especially once Taylor cooled off."

"I know. It's just… a lot. I'm scared, Troy."

"Do…do you want me to go with you?" Troy offered, unsure if that was the right thing or not. Gabriella looked up at him in surprise. "I don't have to, obviously!" he defended, not wanting to add to the stress. "I just… I told you I'd be here for you. If it'd help, I will…."

Seeing Troy unsure of himself was such an oddity for Gabriella; she couldn't help but think it was cute in these infrequent instances. She gave him a soft smile. "That's really sweet, Wildcat. It's just…. calling the clinic means I have to tell more people…."

Troy rubbed his hand up and down along the upper part of her arm to comfort her. "Hey, you did a damn fine job telling Taylor!" he chuckled, still impressed by the strength Gabriella showed in standing up to her best friend. She humored him with a small chuckle, but shook her head at him. "So… do you want me to go with you?"

She looked up at him and felt a wave of comforting warmth rush through her body at the sincerity staring back at her. She gave him a small nod of confirmation but couldn't hold eye contact longer than that, her nerves still getting the best of her.

Troy saw he needed a different tact. "Gabi, do you remember when you asked me what I wanted to do about the baby? What was my answer?"

Gabriella thought for a moment before her posture visibly softened, figuring out where he was going with his line of questioning. "That you wanted me safe."

"Exactly. So, if a doctor's appointment can tell us that you're safe…." He gave her a knowing look, sure she understood his meaning.

She let out a sigh. "Alright, alright. I get it," she said with an eye roll.

Troy pressed a kiss to the top of her forehead. "Good. So, just tell me when and where to be, and I'll be there," he assured her, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. "Now, I better get you to class before Taylor jumps down my throat for making you late," Troy teased getting a giggle from Gabriella as he escorted her towards the stairs.

* * *

Gabriella felt queasy all through her morning classes, but whether that had to do with the baby or the impending phone call, she wasn't quite sure. Her feet felt like lead as she forced herself to trudge up to the rooftop once the free period bell rang. She settled back onto the bench and tried to distract herself by studying for her upcoming Calculus test while she waited for Taylor to arrive.

Gabriella startled slightly when she finally heard footsteps coming up the stairs – she couldn't help but worry that Troy's secret hideout would be discovered and land her in detention eventually. But when Taylor rounded the corner, her bag rolling behind her, Gabriella let out a sigh of relief. "Hey," she greeted weakly, stuffing her notes back into her folder.

"Hey," Taylor returned, a bit too perky for Gabriella's liking. Gabriella took a mental note that that had to be her nerves talking though and shoved aside her annoyance for her friend who certainly was trying to help. "Here's the number for the clinic," Taylor said as she settled down onto the bench beside her best friend, offering Gabriella a slip of paper.

Gabriella reached out with a trembling hand to take it, but made no move for her phone. She stared blankly at the number, trying to convince herself to move.

"Gabi? You okay?" Taylor asked gently, reaching over and touching her friend on the knee, catching her attention.

"Um… yeah," Gabriella assured her, but Gabriella had lost her nerve. "You know, maybe I could just call them tomorrow or something," she said, starting to stuff the piece of paper into the front pocket of her messenger bag.

Taylor reached out and caught Gabriella's hand, taking the slip of paper back from her. "Gabriella, if you're going to keep the baby, you have to -"

"I know, Taylor," Gabriella snapped, getting a shocked expression from the girl next to her. "I'm sorry," Gabriella continued with a sigh. "I'm just… really nervous. I've never been to a doctor like this before."

Taylor gave Gabriella a sympathetic look. "How about I call? I'll put it on speaker."

Gabriella looked up at Taylor with a slight smile. "Thanks."

Taylor pulled out her phone and punched in the number. She held the phone out between the two of them as they sat on the rooftop bench, listening to the phone ring through. A professional-sounding woman's voice picked up the line. "Pregnancy Resource Center. How may I help you?"

"I need to schedule a prenatal visit," Taylor answered, trying to choose the right words.

"Have you seen a doctor here before?" the woman asked.

"No, we haven't."

"Okay then, I'll just need some information from you then. Have you received any prenatal care for your pregnancy before now?"

"No, this would be the first visit."

"Got it. And your name?"

"Gabriella Montez," Taylor answered.

"Date of birth?" the woman asked, a faint sound of typing in the background.

"July thirtieth," Taylor answered. Gabriella smiled that her best friend had remembered her birthday.

"Of what year?" the woman inquired.

Taylor and Gabriella met eyes, Gabriella's wide with nerves. "1990," she whispered to Taylor, the butterflies in her stomach flying at full speed.

"1990," Taylor answered into the phone before hearing some more typing.

"You're seventeen?" the woman on the phone asked. It wasn't a judgmental a tone as Gabriella had expected, luckily.

"Yes. That isn't a problem, is it?"

"No, no. You'll be just fine, dear," the woman reassured them. "Will you have a parent with you for your visit?"

Gabriella froze, panic rising and tightening her throat. Taylor saw the terror in her eyes and worked to get information that would calm her friend. "Is that necessary?"

"Under New Mexico law, we can still provide services to you. But some young women in your position do find comfort in -"

"No, there won't be a parent with me," Gabriella jumped in.

It seemed the woman on the phone sensed the tension. "It's okay, dear. You're doing the right thing by coming to see us." There were a few moments of clicking and typing before the woman spoke again. "It looks like we had a cancellation tomorrow late afternoon if that works for you. Five o'clock?"

"We'll take it," Taylor said, taking back over for the very anxious Gabriella.

"Wonderful, we will see you at five o'clock tomorrow."

"Thank you," Taylor told her courteously before ending the call and taking Gabriella into a hug. "See? Not so bad."

Taylor's reassurances were met by a stony glare as Gabriella sat back up. "For you maybe! If I can't handle the questions on a phone call, how am I going to deal with the appointment?"

Taylor felt a pang of sympathy for her friend, hating to see her so anxious. "Gabriella, you are one of the strongest people I know. You came in and took East High by storm last year. You broke through all the cliques and gave people the ability to be themselves. If you can do that, you can do this."

Gabriella took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "If you say so, Tay."

"I do," Taylor told her definitely, Gabriella giggling slightly. "Now, study time before Calculus?" Taylor asked, reaching for her notes in her bag.

* * *

Gabriella wasn't totally sure that she felt better having survived the call to the clinic, but at least she was able to focus more clearly on her classes that afternoon. As soon as the dismissal bell rang, she gathered her things and headed for her locker, lost in the process of creating a check list of all she needed to do that night: _Edit History paper, Complete Chemistry problem set, Research prenatal appointments…._

Just then, Troy swooped in, cutting off Gabriella's thoughts as he stretched his arm out against the wall to lean casually over where his girlfriend stooped gathering books from the bottom shelf of her locker. "Hey beautiful," he greeted, clearly putting on his charm after not seeing her all day.

"Hi, Troy," she said without turning her attention to him, still gathering her books into her messenger bag.

"How, um, how was free period today?" he asked coyly, trying to keep it cool while the hallways were still buzzing with students.

"Fine. I have an appointment tomorrow at five," she partially mumbled, working on closing her overly stuffed bag.

Troy reached down and gathered her bag onto his shoulder for her, catching her lips in a kiss when she stood to full height. He then grabbed her hand and started their path down the hall so she could catch a bus home and he could get to practice. They had only taken a few steps from Gabriella's locker before they heard the wheels of Taylor's bag rolling against the tiles as she jogged to catch up to them. "Hey," she greeted.

Troy gave her a warm smile. "Thanks for your help, Taylor," Troy told her sincerely.

"No problem," she dismissed. "So she told you she has an appointment tomorrow at five?"

"Yeah," Troy said before realization hit him. "Wait. Shit!" he cursed, his footsteps halting in the hall.

"What is it?" Gabriella asked concerned.

"We have practice every day this week. Championships are next Friday."

"So?" Taylor asked, unsure of the problem.

"I can't miss it again. My dad would kill me. And practice runs until five."

Concern flared in Gabriella's eyes. How was she supposed to face this without him? But before her panic could get too out of hand, Taylor stepped in as the voice of reason. "I can take Gabriella to the clinic," she started. Gabriella looked around frantically to see if anyone had overheard.

"Okay, but I don't want her to be alone," Troy protested.

"And what am I?" Taylor asked, her hands sweeping up and down her body to point out her presence. "I am the best friend."

"Yes, but -"

Taylor put up her hand to silence him. "But Lunkhead Basketball Man can drive over after practice and meet us there," she explained, finishing the plan she had started explaining.

Troy looked to Gabriella to get her input on the plan and it was incredibly obvious that it made nervous. "Hey," he said gently, lifting her chin to look him in the eyes. "I will be there as soon as I can, I promise." He said the last two words pointedly, knowing she would understand that, if he said those words, he meant it. Gabriella gave a tentative nod.

"Besides, doctors are always running late anyway," Taylor assured her, rubbing her hand up and down Gabriella's arm to help soothe her. Gabriella gave her a small smile.

"Speaking of practice though, I've got to run," Troy told them, leaning in to give Gabriella quick peck on the lips. He handed off her bag and started down the hall before calling back, "I'll text you tonight!"

"Troy!" She called back, catching his attention with a pointed stare.

"For real this time!" He called back with a chuckle and a wink before running off towards the locker room to hurriedly change before he was late to practice.

* * *

Once Troy made it to the familiar space in front of his gym locker, he threw his bag down on the locker room bench and hastily began striping down, not wanting to be late for practice and incur an even worse wrath from his father than he was already facing. As he slid his jersey over his head, a few members of the team filtered by, including Zeke. "Hey, look, fellas! Bolton decided to grace us with his presence at practice today!"

Troy shut his eyes tight, taking a deep breath to keep from snapping. He knew the team would be angry. But if they only knew what was happening… Troy turned toward the group as he propped one foot then the other on the bench to lace up his sneakers. "Yeah, yeah. I know I suck. I'm sorry." He looked up at his teammates and saw Zeke in the front, arms crossed. Troy let out a small sigh under his breath. "Really, man. I'm sorry. Chad told me what happened. Trust me, Coach is giving me hell for it," he explained sincerely. All he got was a small nod from his friend before the group shuffled off for the gym.

Troy was working on shoving his bag into his locker when Chad rounded the corner, leaning against the grated wall opposite his friend. "Zeke's pissed, huh?"

"Yeah. Can't blame him," Troy admitted, slamming his locker closed before joining his friend to make their way to the gym.

"So… how's Gabs?" Chad asked, trying not to ask anything too directly that would be overheard.

"Tomorrow at five," Troy said, knowing that his friend was truly asking about the appointment.

"But, we have –"

"I know. So you have to help get me out of here as soon as possible tomorrow," Troy told his friend with a pointed look, imploring him to help if he could.

"You got it, man. Just… don't let Coach know you're trying to run from practice as soon as you can."

Troy glanced over his shoulder towards where his father had entered the gym from his office. "Don't worry. Wasn't planning on talking to _Coach_ anymore than necessary…" The bitterness in Troy's voice told Chad that the tension between father and son was still not resolved.

"Alright, team! Pair up!" Coach Bolton called out as he made his way towards his team, effectively shutting up Troy and Chad's conversation. Troy smacked Chad on the shoulder, pointing between the two of them to indicate they should partner for the drills. With a hop in his step, Troy took off at a run towards the center of the court, but stopped dead, his shoes squeaking against the floor, as he heard his father's voice call out to him. "Bolton! Front and center!"

Troy shared a worried looked with Chad before he ran towards his father on sidelines of the gym, waiting with a serious look on his face. "Yeah, Coach?" Troy asked, concerned about what his punishment was going to be.

Coach Bolton flipped through the paperwork on his clipboard, trying to make the conversation look causal to the rest of the team. "I heard from the office today. They saw your unexcused absences from Friday afternoon."

Troy's face dropped. "So does that mean -"

"I told them you had an appointment," Jack explained, confusing Troy who waited expectantly for the rest of the story. "I told them you left from lunch and I forgot to call it in."

Troy's eyes were wide with shock. "Why?" He was confused. Isn't that the prime punishment his father thought he deserved for his behavior?

"Because your team needs you, Captain. Because it is not _their_ fault you skipped school." Jack's voice was hushed, making sure the team didn't overhear the situation.

"Thank you," Troy told his father sincerely before giving him a nod and turning to go back to the rest of the team.

But before Troy was too far away, Jack called out to him again. "Bolton!" Troy turned back to him. "Bleachers!" Jack yelled with a stern look. Troy let out a sigh and then nodded his understanding, heading for the same punishment his team had endured because of him - a full practice of bleacher runs.

* * *

 ** _A/N: I'm so sorry everyone! Things have really been bad in the broadwaybaby household lately which has put a nasty kink in my creativity. Originally, I was going to have this chapter go ahead and cover her first appointment, but it's already pretty lengthy. So, that gets bumped into chapter seven. The plan for the next chapter is to also reach the big game and after party (hey! We made it to the start of the movie!). I hope this chapter didn't feel too boring. I had to tie up a couple loose ends I created in chapter five as well as work towards bigger events, like doctor's appointments. I was also worried since this chapter ended up more episodic in nature... I hope it doesn't feel too choppy._**

 ** _A note on dates: I honestly hate putting dates into a story. I'd rather they be non-specific so you can imagine whatever you like. However, birth date is definitely something medical professionals ask for and her age is a source of conflict in the story. So, I assumed since HSM3 came out in 2008, that they were class of 2008. With this story covering their last semester, she is still 17 until the summer between graduation and college. Hope that all makes sense!_**

 ** _As things have yet to settle around here, there may very well still be a delay before our next chapter. Please don't fret – I am too in love with this story and have too much material written for all the way to the Epilogue to ever abandon it. This story will continue, even if it's at a pace slower than I would like._**

 ** _Also please note that I have worked through the previous five chapters and tried to streamline my formatting and update my author's notes. I'm not sure if those who are following the story will receive notifications for that or not, so I wanted to clarify just in case._**

 _ **I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Trust me, more drama is to come soon!**_


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